THE 



SPIRIT OF POPERY: 

AN EXPOSURE 

OP 

ITS ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND RESULTS. 

IN LETTERS 

FROM 

A FATHER TO HIS CHILDREN. 



LONDON: 
THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY ; 

Instituted 1799. 

SOLD AT THE DEPOSITORY, 56, PATERNOSTER ROTV, AND 65, ST. PAUL'S 

churchyard; and by THE BOOKSELLERS. 



1840. 



WILLIAM TYLER, 

PRINTER, 
5, BOLT COURT, FXEET STREET. 



EL? chci:.:i^e -•- ' fl , 
Western Out. Univ. library 

□ EC 2 8-/ 1»$8 



LIST OF ENGRAVINGS. 



Sale of Indulgences .Frontispiece. 

Page 

Submission of Philip iv. of France to the Pope 14 

Procession with Palms 92 

The Pope 94 

The Pope's Blessing . M 98 

St. Anthony's Day 120 

The Confessional 138 

Adoration of the Wafer 170 

Homage to the Virgin * 210 

Prayer for the Dead 230 

Mass for the Dead 232 

Blessing the Bell 328 



CONTENTS. 



LETTER I. 

Page 

The interest of a parent in Ms children's welfare— The soul of inesti- 
mable worth — "Wisdom of true piety — Religion is a personal thing 
— The extent of its influence — Object of the great adversary of 
man— Bunyan's description of Pope and Pagan— Difference be- 
tween our times and his— Revival of Popery in France — Its state 
in the United Kingdom— Necessity of caution and vigilance— The 
claims of others 1 

LETTER II. 

All things on earth exposed to corruption — Advent of Christianity — 
Various means of its early corruption — Cyprian's account of the 
Christian Church in the third century — The "Man of sin"— Civil 
power of the Roman Pontiff— Assumption by the Pope of eccle- 
siastical authority — Clarke's estimate of the predictions of Anti- 
christ — Kings and people laid under tribute — The doctrine of the 
infallibility of the Romish Church promulged — Arrest and mar- 
tyrdom of John Huss — Exertions of Wycliffe — Martin Luther — 
The sale of indulgences — Creed of Pope Pius iv. — Its insidious 
and unscriptural character 8 



CONTENTS. 



LETTER III. 

Page 

Claims of oral tradition examined — Many things which Jesus said and 
did not written — Sayings of the apostles not recorded— None of 
these authoritative — That the Divine will should he entrusted to 
human tradition is improbable — The transmission to us of the 
Divine will by tradition is impossible — Let us repair, then, to ;, 'the 
Apostle of our profession" 30 



LETTER IT. 

Chiliingworth — " The Bible and the Bible only, the religion of Protest- 
ants''' — Assertion that the Romish Church determined the canon of 
Scripture denied— Charge of the corruption of the Bible by Pro- 
testants refuted — History of the Vulgate — Strange predicament of 
Romanists — Contrast in the position of Protestants — Authorized 
version of the Scriptures— The Rheimish Testament— The Douay 
Bible — The assertion is unfounded, that the Romish Church is the 
only proper interpreter of Scripture — Claim of infallibility exa- 
mined — Inspiration the only basis of authority — Individual respon- 
sibility proportioned to privilege — Search the Scriptures— Awful 
ignorance among Romanists of the revealed will of God— Use of 
the Latin language in Romish services 47 



LETTER V. 

The Pope— Palace of the Pontiff— Presentation to him — His visit to a 
Church — Pomp in which he appears — His splendour at the Feast of the 
Annunciation — The Agnus Dei — Procession on Palm Sunday — Cere- 
mony of washing feet — Its gross absurdity — The curse on all Jews, 



CONTENTS. 



Page 

Turks, and heretics — The Pope's blessing on Papists — Doctrine of 
the Pontiff's supremacy examined — The office of the apostle Peter 
— He was not Bishop of Rome SO 



LETTER VI. 

Comparison of Popery with heathenism— Little temples or altars — 
Pompous ritual in early times — The Pantheon at Rome — Temples 
of pagans now those of Papists — " The Sanctuary" of a Romish 
chapel— Use of lights — <; Holy Water" — St. Anthony's day — The eye 
of St. Odilia— Votive offerings — Paintings and Statues — Chaunt 
used by the Papal choir — Garments of Romanists— Feast of the 
Madonna del Arco — Asylum for criminals Ill 



LETTER VII. 

Romish Doctrine of venial and mortal sin — Shown to be utterly un- 
scriptural— The Confessional — Evils of confession — Dispensations — 
— Penance — Conclusion of " Holy week" at Mexico — Pilgrimages 
— Holy wells of Ireland — St. Patrick's Purgatory — Relics — Ab- 
surdity and wickedness of such pretensions 135 

LETTER VIII. 

The Romish Tabernacle — Low mass— High mass — Form of administer- 
ing the wafer— Pagan ritual in the presentation of offerings— Ho- 
nours given to the host — Transubstantiation opposed to the senses, 
to reason, and to the word of God — Origin of transubstantiation — 
—The cup forbidden to the laity— Only one sacrifice for sin . .167 



CONTENTS. 



VII 



LETTER IX. 

Page 

Patron gods of heathens — Worship of saints — Recent canonization — 
Tendency to idolatry one evidence of depravity — The Collyridians — 
Honours paid to the Virgin Mary — " The Mary Psalter" — Appeal to 
Scripture— Divine prohibition of all creature and image worship— 
The golden calf 201 



LETTER X. 

The doctrine of purgatory— Crosses and chapels in Switzerland— Ceme- 
try in France — Funeral service — Masses for the dead — Indulgences 
— The love of money — Free offers of the Gospel — Purgatory has no 
foundation in the Bible— Its origin in heathenism . . . .229 



LETTER XI. 

" Taking the veil" — Nunneries in Spain — Xuns of St. Jean in Bruges — 
Endurance of suffering — Fearful catastrophe — Nunneries in England 
— Romish doctrine of merit— Its utter fallacy — Faith in the only Re- 
deemer 242 



LETTER XII. 

English Monasteries— Their former history and present state — Vicars 
apostolic — Designs of Romanists — "The English Mission" — The 
Jesuits — Various officers of a Benedictine monastery— Interior of one 
— The library — The refectory — The calefactory — Personal indul- 
gence ■ . . . 251 



Vlll 



CONTENTS. 



LETTER XIII. 

Page 

Inducements to a monastic life — History of a monk — The postulant — 
The chapter-house — The novice — The novice master — The chapter 
of faults — Scenes in the noviciate— Endurance of severity — The 
rule of St. Benedict — Council of the monastery — The president . 274 

LETTER XIY. 
The retreat — The act of profession — The appetite for gain — Require- 
ment of absolute submission — "The Daily Office" — Various penal- 
ties — The Trappists — Sufferings of one of the professed — Duplicity 
of Popery — Subtle distinctions — The deacon — The priest — Instance 
of submission to authority — Extreme unction — Celibacy of the Rom- 
ish clergy — The pagan priesthood 291 

LETTER XV. 

The life of a Papist is one of sacrifice — Opposition of Popery to litera- 
ture — The Index Purgatorius — Science opposed by Popery — GaUleo 
— Sufferings of monks and nuns — Popery is essentially a perse- 
cuting system— Revocation of the edict of Nantz — Massacre of the 
Huguenots — Slaughter of the Albigenses — The Duke of Alva — 
The Inquisition 315 

LETTER XVI. 
Mode adopted in making proselytes — Superstition in the blessing of bells 
— Various superstitious services of a Benedictine monastery — 
" Holy Week" — Adoration of the Cross — Idolatry of the Church of 
Rome — Easter Sunday — Pretended miracles — Real design of 
miracles — Doctrine of intention — Popery tends to infidelity — The 
triumph of Divine truth— Fall of Popery 326 



THE 

SPIRIT OF POPERY. 



LETTER I. 

THE INTEREST OF A PARENT IN HIS CHILDREN'S WELFARE — THE 

SOUL OF CHIEF IMPORTANCE TRUE RELIGION IS PERSONAL 

POPERY AND PAGANISM — NECESSITY OF CAUTION THE CLAIMS 

OF OTHERS. 

In commencing this series of letters to yon, my 
dear children, I cannot but renew the expression of the 
most affectionate solicitude for your real welfare. It is 
only a parent that can know a parent's heart. The 
words of my pen will therefore serve to recall and en- 
force many to which you have already listened. Let 
them all be held in remembrance. For whatever con- 
cerns you — the state of your health, your acquisition of 
knowledge, and your prospects in society, awaken in 
my bosom emotions of the liveliest and tenderest inter- 
est — emotions to which you must be strangers, until 

B 



2 



THE SOUL OF CHIEF IMPORTANCE. 



you sustain to others, should such be the will of God, 
the endeared relation which I bear towards you. 

To the object of my chief, my increasing anxiety for 
your welfare, you are no strangers. You have been taught 
that the body is only like an earthly casket, containing a 
jewel of inestimable worth — that though a drop bears 
some comparison to all the waters of the globe, there is 
none between the present life and that which is to come 
— and that our bounden duty is connected with our 
highest happiness, in acceptance before God through 
" the Beloved" now, and in consequent preparation for 
the glory and blessedness of heaven. Infinitely rather 
would I that such a state were yours, than that you could 
call the treasures of a world your own. These, though 
possessed, must all be left, after many afflicting proofs 
of their emptiness and vanity, at the brink of the grave ; 
but to the heir of a glorious immortality is secured, even 
here, all that is truly valuable. He foregoes only what 
would injure him, to be enriched for ever by the munifi- 
cence of God. Well then might Solomon say : " "Wisdom 
is the principal thing ; therefore get wisdom : and with 
all thy getting get understanding." — Well might the 
great apostle of the Gentiles declare that " godliness 
with contentment is great gain." 

Here, however, let one truth be particularly observed 



TRUE RELIGION IS PERSONAL. 



3 



— religion, true religion, is a personal thing. In many 
cases a proxy is admissible, but here it is not : no one 
can become pious for us ; a substitution of others for 
ourselves is utterly impossible. Religion is often ex- 
hibited in the Scriptures as knowledge, affection, and 
obedience ; and these are obviously not relative, but 
individual ; equally certain, therefore, is it that religion 
must be personal also. It is, in fact, " a heart of flesh," 
a renewal in the spirit of the mind, a new nature, a 
Divine principle, the life of God in the soul of man — 
a life kindled from above, and rising to the world from 
whence it came. Not only does true piety operate on 
the individual, as considered apart from others, but it 
acts on the whole man. In his understanding, it is 
light ; in his affections, it is love ; in his conscience, it is 
submission to supreme authority ; throughout his course, 
it is habitual conformity to the law of righteousness. 

To prevent your being a decided follower of Christ, 
and professing his religion, is the chief design of the 
great adversary of man. Like a subtle fowler, he 
sets his snares around you ; he has placed many for 
the capture of our race in all ages, and there are others 
which he peculiarly adapts to the present times. To 
one, which peculiarly displays his subtilty, I now wish 
to direct your utmost attention. 

b 2 



4 



POFERY AND PAGANISM. 



When Bunyan, one of your favourite authors, was 
describing the progress of the Pilgrim, he tells us that 
Christian came in the light of the sun to the end of the 
valley of the shadow of death. " Now, I saw in my 
dream," he continues, " that at the end of the valley 
lay blood, bones, ashes, and mangled bodies of men, 
even of pilgrims that had gone this way formerly ; and 
while I was musing what should be the reason, I espied 
a little before me a cave, where two giants, Pope and 
Pagan, dwelt in old times, by whose power and tyranny 
the men, whose bones, blood, and ashes lay there, were 
cruelly put to death. But by this place Christian went 
without much danger, whereat I somewhat wondered ; 
but I have learned since, that Pagan has been dead 
many a day ; and as for the other, though he be yet 
alive, he is, by reason of age, and also of the many 
shrewd brushes that he met with in his younger days, 
grown so crazy and stiff in his joints, that he can now 
do little more than sit in his cave's mouth, grinning at 
pilgrims as they go by, and biting his nails because he 
cannot come at them." 

This vivid description will not, however, apply to 
the present day, when Popery is again displaying full 
life and activity. In France, it seemed not many 
years ago to be utterly destroyed, but it has been again 



POPERY AND PAGANISM. 



5 



set up, lias rapidly gained ground, and now makes 
every effort again to become the only religion of the 
land. The number of young men preparing for the 
service of the Romish church in that country increases. 
The churches of Paris are well filled, often crowded. 
The statues, paintings, crosses, candlesticks, artificial 
flowers, and all the rest of the internal garniture of 
these idol temples, have been lately refitted and put in 
perfect order. The old churches are being repaired, 
and new ones built throughout France. Of all this the 
late archbishop of Paris appears to have been a princi- 
pal instrument — a man whose life was marked by 
what is ordinarily called virtue, but whose bondage to 
the superstitions of his church was abject and com- 
plete. Thus he became a most efficient instrument to 
carry forward the revival of Popery. 

In Ireland there are said to be 7,000,000 of Papists ; 
and in England, the churches of these people are 
greatly on the increase. We hear occasionally of young 
females entering convents, but this is done very fre- 
quently without exciting public attention; while the 
education of young men for the service of the Romish 
church is zealous and unceasing. The total number of 
the population of the globe within its pale, may be esti- 
mated at about 120 or 130 millions. 



6 



NECESSITY OE CAUTION. 



Of the enormous evils thus widely prevalent, it is 
important that you should be fully aware, especially as 
many of its errors are broached under the appellation of 
the ancient faith, and in some respects frequently pass 
for Protestantism ; while some doctrines falsely assumed 
to be those of Protestants are, in fact, Popery. A ve- 
nomous reptile is the more dangerous when a name is 
assigned to it which lulls suspicion. We should dread 
and shun evil in every guise, though it should appear 
as only an atom, as well as in its most alarming aspect 
and aggregate. Truth and righteousness are not mat- 
ters of quantity, but of principle. " He that is faithful 
in that which is least is faithful also in much ; and he 
that is unjust in the least, is unjust also in much." 
The irrevocable charge is : " Let every one that nameth 
the name of Christ depart from iniquity." — "Abstain 
from all appearance of evil." 

That these Divine precepts may be practically and 
constantly regarded by you, is my daily and hourly 
prayer. Error — fearful error, in the garb of truth, with 
a bland and benignant demeanour, and words soft as 
the snow which falls as I write, will address you, and 
aim to take you captive. To be forewarned is to be 
forearmed. Apprized of the character and designs of 
one who appears as " an angel of light/' you may de- 



THE CLAIMS OF OTHERS. 



1 



tect the god of this world through his disguise, and 
" stand in the evil day," through the strength of the 
Almighty, while others are ensnared by his wiles. 

Nor should this be all ; it is not enough for us to ask 
with Cain, 6 6 Am I my brother's keeper ? " We are 
required by that law which demands a supreme love 
for God, to love our neighbour as ourselves. To use 
our best endeavours that others may be prevented from 
falling into error, or delivered from it, is therefore mat- 
ter of solemn obligation. From this there can be no 
release until death. Here then is another reason for 
the appeal I now make. I am deeply concerned that 
you should manifest your devout regard to both tables 
of the law of God — that piety should be clearly as- 
sociated in your case with philanthropy — and that yours 
should not only be the honour and the happiness of a 
sincere discipleship, but also of turning others to righte- 
ousness, though you should occupy only a private sphere. 
Thus have I opened to you my general design ; may He 
who has said, " I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, 
and my blessing upon thine offspring, and they shall 
spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water- 
courses," graciously afford us his direction and bless- 
ing. 



LETTER II. 



EARLY CORRUPTION OF CHRISTIANITY — THE MAN OF SIN — CIVIL 
AND ECCLESIASTICAL SUPREMACY ASSUMED BY THE POPE FUL- 
FILMENT OF PROPHECY — ITS EVIDENCE OF DIVINE INSPIRATION. 

It is necessary, my dear children, in the accomplish- 
ment of my present design, that you should have at the 
outset, a sketch of the rise and progress of Popery, in 
order to remove many difficulties lying in our path. 
This, therefore, I now proceed to supply, premising 
only that brevity is necessary, and that by and by you 
will do well to avail yourselves of more copious sources 
of information. 

Here, then, let it be remarked, that heaven is the 
only state of absolute perfection. All things on earth 
are exposed to corruption. Man is a depraved creature, 
and until renewed by the work of the Holy Spirit, he 
contaminates every thing with which he has to do. 
Hence, the material " heavens shall pass away with a 



EARLY CORRUPTION OF CHRISTIANITY. 



9 



great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent 
heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall 
be burned up," 2 Peter iii. 10. 

The same tendency of human nature will appear 
from a still more lamentable fact. At a time appointed 
by Infinite Wisdom, the holy, benignant, and elevating 
system of Christianity was granted to our race. It came to 
this world in perfect purity ; yet as the mountain torrent, 
gushing forth in all its clearness and brightness from 
the towering eminence, may contract defilement as it 
passes along the swamp beneath, so Christianity suf- 
fered in its progress from human depravity. Look at 
it in its advent, and observe the glory it casts on its 
Divine Author ; look at it in after ages, and you will 
have abundant cause to bewail the guilt and misery of 
man. 

The Jews engaged in this work of corruption. Though 
free from idolatry after the Babylonish captivity* their 
belief was polluted by the fables and traditions of men ; 
and as from their own wilfulness, the new dispensation 
failed to inspire them with its divine principles, and 
to mould them according to its own lovely image, they 
brought it down from its noble elevation, and impressed 
on it human infirmity and error. Though, strongly 
attached in appearance to the Mosaic system, the form 



10 



EARLY CORRUPTION" OF CHRISTIANITY. 



only remained — it was a corpse from which the living 
spirit had fled ; for the doctrines given by inspiration 
of God were concealed by a mass of vain interpre- 
tations. The direct opposition between their favourite 
tenets and the will of Heaven, as declared by those who 
were taught from above, they did not deny ; yet such is 
the fascination of prejudice, and so strangely does it darken 
even the plainest truths, that they resolved to reject all 
that they were unwilling to embrace, and to have re- 
course to forged or interpolated documents, to secure the 
credence of their followers where thev misrht otherwise 
have hesitated to believe. 

Supposing, then, that you see Christianity at its rise like 
the pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, numerous 
beyond description were the means of its corruption. Pe- 
culiarities of natural temperament, the efforts of unbridled 
imagination, the weakness of excessive sensibility, the 
power of disease, the indolence that will not be roused, 
the credulity which grasps any object, regardless of its 
character, or the basis on which it rests, the prejudice 
which, come what will, deprecates every change, the 
vanity which ever thirsts for human applause, the pride 
whose only aim is personal aggrandizement, and the 
presumption that rushes in where angels fear to tread — 
all contributed to impair the integrity of Christian 



EARLY CORRUPTION OF CHRISTIANITY. 11 

truth, and corrupt the simplicity of Christian insti- 
tutes. 

It would be easy to cite many facts in proof of the awful 
degeneracy that was apparent ; but I will refer you to 
only one. Look at Jesus, the eternal Son of God, who after 
supping with his disciples, laid aside his outer garment, 
and having girded himself with a towel, proceeded, in 
the usual attitude of a servant or a slave, to wash their 
feet, and enjoin on them humility and mutual love — 
yes, with the gracious Redeemer fully in view, I would 
ask you to visit the banqueting chamber of the em- 
peror Maximus, when surrounded by a splendid circle 
of illustrious guests. Near to the monarch is another 
striking figure ; it is that of Martin, bishop of Tours ; 
and one of his presbyters is seated between the brother 
and uncle of the sovereign. An attendant, according 
to the usual custom, presents a chalice of wine to the 
emperor, who commands it to be offered first to the 
bishop, that he may receive it from the prelate's hands ; 
but no sooner has Martin drank, than he passes the wine 
to his presbyter, as next in importance to himself ; while 
the empress bathes his feet with her tears, wipes them 
with the hair of her head, attends as a slave to every 
means of indulgence, and regards the crumbs of his 
meal as the richest delicacy. Is it supposed that this is 



12 EARLY CORRUPTION" OF CHRISTIANITY. 



homage of a recent date ? It was tendered at the 
distance of only three or four lives from the apostle 
John ! Thus early had the nominal followers of Christ 
departed from Christian simplicity. 

No wonder, then, that in the third century, Cyprian, 
the bishop of Carthage, coidd thus describe the existing 
state of the Christian church : " Long peace had cor- 
rupted the discipline divinely revealed to us. Each 
was intent on improving his patrimony, and had for- 
gotten what believers had done under the apostles, and 
what they ought always to do. They were brooding 
over the arts of amassing wealth ; works of mercy were 
neglected, and discipline was at the lowest ebb. Luxury 
and effeminacy prevailed ; meretricious arts of dress were 
practised among the brethren. Christians could unite 
themselves in matrimony with unbelievers ; could swear, 
not only without reverence, but without veracity. Many 
bishops, neglecting the peculiar duties of their stations, 
gave themselves up to secular pursuits. They deserted 
their places of residence, and their flocks. They tra- 
velled through distant provinces, in quest of pleasure 
and gain ; gave no assistance to their needy brethren, 
but were insatiable in their thirst of money. They 
possessed estates by fraud, and multiplied usury." 

In this portraiture appear prominent the features or 



THE MAX OF SIX. 



13 



the "man of sin," as described by the apostle, long before 
his complete development. It was said, "Who opposeth 
and exalteth Hmself above all that is called God, or; 
that is worshipped," 2 Thess. ii. 4 ; and in the papal 
usurpation, this part of the prophecy is exactly fulfilled. 
The term " gods " is frequently applied in the Old 
Testament to kings and magistrates, and the word 
translated " that is worshipped," is often used for the 
veneration and homage paid to monarchs, and particu- 
larly to the Roman emperors ; and here we trace the 
assumption of civil dominion by the pope. For as the 
Roman empire was hastening to its decline, the seat of 
government was transferred to Byzantium, since called 
Constantinople, thus securing to the Roman pontiff, a 
great increase of power. V\'hile new and successive 
kingdoms arose, after the irruptions of the Goths and 
Vandals, who destroyed the Roman empire in the west, 
the new court gradually augmented its strength, till its 
ambitious head was in full possession of civil as well as 
ecclesiastical supremacy. The haughty prelate reminds 
us of Satan, when he offered the kingdoms of the world 
and the glory of them, as the reward of his worship. 
Men were raised from private life to sceptres, and even 
thrones, at his dictation. Monarchs and emperors re- 
ceived their titles from the pope, and were deposed at 



14 



THE MAX OF SIX. 



his pleasure. The kings of the earth " gave their power 
and strength to the beast," Rev. xvii. 13. 

Abject indeed was their consequent degradation. It 
was no unusual thing for the Roman pontiff to tread on 
the necks of emperors, to kick off their crowns with his 
foot, and to oblige them to hold his stirrup when he 
mounted his horse. Philip iv. of France led pope 
Clement's horse on his return from the church where he 
had been crowned ; and you will remember that king 
John of England also felt his power, when he laid this 
country under an interdict. The nation was, in conse- 
quence, stripped of all appearance of what was called 
religious service. The use of flesh meat was forbidden, 
as in Lent ; no entertainments were allowed ; the people 
were not suffered to salute each other, or to give any 
decent attention to the person or apparel. Every where 
great distress prevailed. There was also a sentence 
directed against individuals, called excommunication. 
Any one on whom it passed was considered as polluted ; 
and, with some few exceptions, all persons were forbidden 
to approach or aid him. The English king John was 
thus excommunicated by the pope, who also published 
a sort of crusade, exhorting all Christian barons to 
attack and dethrone him. 

While this sentence was gradually revoked, the in- 



SUPREMACY ASSUMED BY THE POPE. 



15 



terdict was upheld ; and it was declared to be the pope's 
intention that it should be so, until certain claims he 
advanced were fully adjusted. These were afterwards 
settled by the payment of 40,000 marks ; and after the 
interdict was taken off, John renewed with great 
solemnity, and by a new charter, sealed with gold, his 
professions of homage to the see of Rome. 

Civil supremacy was not however enough, and hence 
it was announced that the " man of sin " should assume 
that which was ecclesiastical, and even Divine preroga- 
tives. The apostle says, " He as God sitteth in the temple 
of God, showing himself that he is God," 2 Thess. ii. 4. 
No prediction can be more completely fulfilled than this 
in the instance of the Roman pontiff, for his supremacy 
is a fundamental article of his church, on which depend 
its asserted infallibility and exclusive authority. Here 
is the very key-stone of the arch of its power, which 
removed, would leave the whole fabric of the earthly 
power it assumes to fall into ruin. In himself, therefore, 
the pope appears as the fountain of civil and ecclesias- 
tical power. He claims an homage which even rivals 
that of Jehovah. Some of the titles he assumes are 
truly awful. Among them are, " Most holy Lord/' 
" God upon earth," " Our Lord God the pope!" I 
quote these from Romish authors. 



16 



FULFILMENT OF PROPHECY. 



Of this enormous wickedness, the apostle John had 
an intimation in the visions of the Apocalypse. " I 
stood," he says, " upon the sand of the sea, and saw a 
"beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten 
horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his 
heads the name of blasphemy. And there was given unto 
him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies. 
And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, 
to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them 
that dwell in heaven," Rev. xiii. 1, 5 — 7. " And I saw 
a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names 
of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns : and 
upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Baby- 
lon the great, the mother of harlots and abominations 
of the earth," Rev. xvii. 3, 5. 

Here then is one proof, that " holy men of God 
spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost," 2 Pet. 
i. 21. How clearly is the Romish church exhibited by 
the woman, and the papal power by the beast ! Indeed 
Dr. Clarke, the friend of Newton, and one of the most 
able reasoners our country ever produced, says he would 
feel no hesitation in putting the truth of revealed re- 
ligion entirely upon the reality of that prophetic spirit 
which foretold the "man of sin," and the desolation of 
Christ's church and kingdom by antichrist. " If," says 



ITS EVIDENCE OF DIVINE INSPIRATION. 1? 

he 9 after enumerating some predictions, " if in the days 
of St. Paul and St. John, there were any footsteps of 
such a sort of power as this in the world : or if there ever 
had been such power in the world : or if there was then 
any appearance of probability that could make it enter 
into the heart of man to imagine that there ever could 
be any such kind of power in the world, much less in the 
temple or church of God ; and, if there be not now such 
a power actually and conspicuously exercised in the 
world ; and if any picture of this power, drawn after the 
event, can describe it more plainly and exactly than it 
was originally described in the words of the prophecy ; 
then may it with some degree of plausibleness be sug- 
gested, that the prophecies are nothing more than en- 
thusiastic inventions." 

It has been justly observed, that to an eye-witness, 
one single and unquestionable miracle would be a 
decisive proof of a Divine agency — a convincing evidence 
of a Divine commission. With equal justice may it be 
affirmed, that one single prophecy, given long before the 
event, agreeing in every particular with it, and removed 
far beyond the power of human foresight, must become 
an unquestionable proof of Divine prescience and 
inspiration. What then must the force of the argument 
be, when we compare the various parts of the system of 

c 



lb 



EFFECTS OF POPERY. 



prophecy with the records of past ages and the course 
of present events ! If but one column of the building be 
so firm and enduring, what must be the solidity of the 
entire structure, which rests on innumerable supports ! 

The pen of history has recorded the results of the 
civil and ecclesiastical power, which has now been 
briefly traced from its rise to its entire dominion. It 
presents in an impressive light the inspired saying, 
<£ Evil men and seducers wax worse and worse." For 
successive ages only added to the mass of existing 
error, and its pestilential influence pervaded every class 
of the community. The clergy, generally speaking, 
were sunk in gross sensuality, and all the avenues by 
which truth could enter the mind, were guarded with the 
utmost care. It was as if a mental paralysis had 
seized on the people ; the common light of the under- 
standing was quenched ; learning was branded as the 
source of heresy ; and ignorance declared to be the 
mother of devotion. 

The moral degeneracy thus continued and increased, 
was promoted by the various means employed for the 
accumulation of wealth. The benefices of the church 
were sold to laymen, and even to children ; and after- 
wards let to under-tenants, who did not perform the 
services for which they were paid, but spent their lives 



THE LOVE OF MONEY. 



19 



in efforts to reimburse themselves at the expense of the 
flock. The fleece was their only care, not the sheep ; 
these were left to perish without pasture. 

The chief object now contemplated by Popery, was the 
provision of an ample and permanent revenue, to sup- 
port its usurpations and outward ceremonials. Kings and 
people were alike laid under tribute ; and art, fraud, 
and intimidation were employed, that the treasures of 
Christendom might flow into the exchequer of Rome. 
Ecclesiastical taxes were levied ; pardons, benefices, 
honours, and prayers for the living and the dead, 
became articles of ' merchandize ; and new terms of 
bargain and sale were constantly invented, that the 
wealth of the world might be transferred to the coffers 
of the church. Almost incredible was the amount that 
rewarded this subtle, yet nefarious scheme, and hence 
Pope Leo x. said, " Oh, how profitable has this 
fable of Jesus been to us!" As we look on, however, 
we cannot fail to hear another voice saying, " Go to 
now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that 
shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and 
your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver is 
cankered ; and the rust of them shall be a witnes sagainst 
you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have 
heaped treasure together for the last days," James v. 13. 
c 2 



20 



JOHN HUSS. 



Meanwhile there were subtle means in operation to 
prevent and lull all suspicion. The doctrine that the 
Roman church is infallible, is the very acme of its 
ingenuity ; forbidding, as it does, every exception to its 
course, and casting over it, whatever it may be, an air 
of sanctity. This, therefore, was zealously promulgated. 
As it rears an impregnable defence around the past, so 
it provides another for the future. To suppose that 
the church had erred, would prepare for the suspicion 
that it might still err ; but the imagination that error 
is absolutely impossible, secures alike the supremacy of 
the church and the prostration of the soul. In this 
authority over conscience there was an inlet to every 
enormity. Punishment was to be suffered as the 
consequence of disobedience. The bishops of Rome, 
unable to carry their persecuting edicts into force 
bevond their temporal domains, urged on princes and 
magistrates the imperative duty of punishing and sup- 
pressing all heretics, against whom their anathemas 
were uttered. Strangely affecting a horror of blood, 
they committed to the temporal authorities of each 
state the office of executioner. Nor was it an easy 
task for the civil power to keep pace with the fury of 
the ecclesiastical. Though John Huss, the reformer 
of Bohemia, had received what is called " a safe con- 



WYCLIFFE. 



21 



duct" from the emperor Sigismund — a royal guarantee, 
in fact, for his personal safety — yet because he would 
not abjure the truth, the council of Constance, con- 
vened by order of the pope, composed of delegates 
from every kingdom and country of Europe, held in 
the presence of an emperor and many other sovereign 
princes, yes, this council decided that the " safe con- 
duct" ought not to impede the decision of the ecclesi- 
astical judge, and according to this decree, the reformer 
was arrested, cast into prison, and suffered at Constance 
a public martyrdom ! 

But to evil there is a time. For a long period, 
heretics, as they were called, were cut off, and the 
nominally Christian world supinely acquiesced in the 
absurdities inculcated, the errors maintained, and the 
cruelties committed. The means of opposition were, 
however, rising, and greatly on the increase. Much is 
owing, under God, to the exertions of "YVycliffe. A 
controversy he maintained with one class of Romanists, 
the begging friars, in 1360, may be considered as the 
beginning of the first English reformation ; and this, 
together with his translation of the Scriptures into the 
yet unformed language of the common people of our 
land, are facts worthy of our grateful remembrance. 

It is true, that the brightness of this morning star 



22 



LUTHER. 



was followed by a gloom which seemed to threaten the 
return of night ; but all the great principles afterwards 
established, are to be found in the writings of the first 
English reformer. According to historians, the books 
of WyclifTe, being carried into Bohemia by Peter 
Payne, an Englishman, and one of his disciples, spread 
there so far in a little time, that the greatest part of the 
masters and scholars of the University of Prague had got 
them into their hands, when John Huss was in that very 
seat of learning a master of arts and bachelor of divinity. 

Lutterworth, in Leicestershire, was the scene of 
"WyclirTe's labours. He was buried in the chancel of 
that church ; but, forty years after, his remains were 
taken up and burned, and his ashes scattered on the 
Swift, a small neighbouring river, by order of the 
reigning pope. The chasibule, or outer garment which 
he wore as a priest, is still preserved ; his chair, and the 
roughly carved pulpit in which he preached the word of 
everlasting life, may also be seen. 

With this illustrious man, another, still more distin- 
guished, must be associated. Martin Luther, born in the 
electorate of Saxony, discovered a Bible in the Latin 
tongue, in the library of the Augustinian monastery at 
Erfurt : the light of Heaven, in consequence, broke 
gradually on his mind ; he deplored the errors in which 



SALE OF INDULGENCES. 



23 



he and multitudes were immersed, and, in 1517, he 
commenced his noble and indefatigable labours for their 
exposure and correction. 

The sale of indulgences especially roused this re- 
former's indignation. That this traffic may be under- 
stood, it should be observed, that, according to the 
doctrine of the Romish church, all the good works of 
the saints, over and above those which are necessary to 
their own justification, are deposited together with the 
infinite merits of Christ, in one inexhaustible treasury. 
Using figurative language, the keys of this store-house 
are said to be committed to Peter and his successors, 
the popes, who may open it at pleasure ; and by trans- 
ferring a portion of this superabundant merit for a sum 
of money, may convey to any person, either the pardon 
of his own sins, or a release for any one in whom he is 
interested, from the pains of purgatory ; a state in 
which those who depart out of this life are said to 
suffer severe pain and punishment, in order to expiate 
offences which are considered venial, or which being 
mortal and heinous sins, have not been fully expiated 
or pardoned in this life. 

Such indulgences were first offered in the eleventh 
century, by pope Urban n., as a recompence for those 
who personally went to rescue the Holy Land from the 



24 



SALE OF INDULGENCE S. 



power of the Saracens. They were afterwards granted 
to any one who hired a soldier for this enterprise ; and, 
in the course of time, they were bestowed on all who 
gave money to accomplish works enjoined by the pope. 
Thus, Leo x., in order to cany on the magnificent 
structure of St. Peter's, at Rome, offered indulgences 
and a full remission to all contributors to that edifice. 
As the project succeeded, he granted to Albert, the 
elector of Mentz, and archbishop of Magdeburg, the 
benefit of the indulgences of Saxony and the neigh- 
bouring parts, and farmed out those of other countries 
to the highest bidders ; who, to secure the largest 
profits, employed the ablest preachers to recommend 
and urge their purchase. 

The language in which they made these offers was 
almost incredibly extravagant. Only, said they, let a 
man purchase letters of indulgence, and the salvation of 
his soul is secured. Only let him obtain them for 
others in purgatory, and as soon as the money tinkles 
in the chest, their spirits escape from the place of 
torment, and ascend into heaven. It was affirmed, that 
the most heinous sins might thus be remitted ; and that 
the cross erected by these preachers was as efficacious as 
the cross of Christ. " Lo, ; ' these preachers exclaimed, 
" the heavens are open ; if you advance not now, when 



SALE Of INDULGENCES. 



2 j 



will you enter ? For twelve pence you may redeem 
the soul of your father out of purgatory ; and are you 
so ungrateful that you will not deliver his spirit from 
torment ? If you had but one coat, you ought to strip 
yourself instantly, sell your garment, and obtain the 
benefit.'' 

The opposition of such statements to the word of 
God will be at once apparent ; but with this, as we 
shall see, Popery maintains a continual conflict. And 
here it may be observed, that the terms Papist and 
Romanist, so generally employed in the following 
letters, are not used in any invidious sense, but because 
every reflecting mind must have a strong objection to 
the phrases Catholic and Roman Catholic, as applied to 
the parties concerned. The word Catholic is inapplica- 
ble, because it means " universal," and there is but one 
universal church, which is formed of the whole body of 
believers on earth and in heaven. TMs explains why 
the Papist or Romanist insidiously endeavours to appro- 
priate that word to his church, which, after all, does not 
include more than a tenth part of the human race, even 
as outwardly professing its doctrines. The usurpation 
of the term is still more objectionable when we consider 
that the church of Rome is the most intolerant of all ; 
and equally so is the phrase Roman Catholic, because 



26 



CREED OF POPE PIUS IV. 



that church was never universal in any sense whatever ; 
and the addition of the word Roman expressly implies 
that it is not Catholic, that is, not universal. 

Here then this letter may he concluded, by adding 
for your information the creed of Pope Pius iv., con- 
taining what every member of the church of Rome 
professedly believes. 

"I, N, believe and profess with a firm faith, all and 
every thing contained in the symbol of faith which the 
holy Roman church uses ; namely, I believe in one God, 
the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth," etc. 
to the end of what we call the Nicene Creed, after 
which immediately follow the additional articles in 
these words :■ — " The apostolical and ecclesiastical tra- 
ditions, and the rest of the observances and appointments 
of the same church, I most freely admit and embrace. 
I also receive the Holy Scripture according to that 
sense which the holy mother church (to whom it 
belongs to judge of the true sense) hath held and doth 
hold ; nor will I ever understand and interpret it, 
otherwise than according to the unanimous consent of 
the fathers. I profess also that there are truly and 
properly seven sacraments of the new law, instituted by 
Jesus Christ our Lord, and necessary to the salvation of 
mankind, though not all of them necessary to every 



CREED OF POPE PIUS IV. 



27 



man, namely, baptism, confirmation, the eucharist, 
penance, extreme unction, orders, and matrimony, and 
that they confer grace ; and that of these, baptism, 
confirmation, and orders, cannot be repeated without 
sacrilege. 

" I likewise receive and admit all the received and 
approved rites of the catholic church, in the solemn ad- 
ministration of all the above-mentioned sacraments. 

"All and every thing, which was defined and declared 
about original sin, and justification, by the most holy 
council of Trent, I embrace and receive. 

" I profess likewise, that, in the mass, is offered to 
God a true, proper, and propitiatory sacrifice for the 
living and the dead ; and that in the most holy sacra- 
ment of the eucharist, there is truly, really, and sub- 
stantially the body and blood, together with the soul 
and Divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ ; and that there 
is a conversion made of the whole substance of bread 
into his body, and of the whole substance of wine into 
his blood ; which conversion the catholic church calls 
Tran sub s t antiation . 

"I confess, also, that under either species only, a 
whole and entire Christ, and the true sacrament is 
received. 

" I constantly hold that there is a purgatory ; and 



28 



CREED OF POPE PIUS IV. 



that the souls there detained are helped by the suffrages 
of the faithful. 

c< As also, that the saints who reign together with 
Christ, are to he worshipped and invoked ; and that 
they offer prayers to God for us ; and that their relics 
are to be venerated. 

" I most firmly assert, that the images of Christ, and 
the mother of God, the always virgin, as also of other 
saints, are to be had and retained, and due honour and 
veneration to be bestowed on them. 

" I affirm also, that the power of indulgences was 
left by Christ in his church, and that their use is most 
wholesome to a Christian people. 

" I acknowledge the holy catholic and apostolic 
Roman Church to be the mother and mistress of all 
churches, and I promise and swear true obedience to the 
bishop of Rome, successor of St. Peter, the prince of 
apostles, and vicar of Jesus Christ. 

" All the rest also delivered, defined, and declared by 
the sacred canons, and ecumenical councils, especially 
by the most holy synod of Trent, I receive and profess 
without doubt ; and likewise all things contrary, and 
whatsoever heresies, condemned, rejected, and anathe- 
matized by the church, I, in like manner, condemn, 
reject, and anathematize. 



CREED OF POPE PIUS IV. 



29 



" This true catholic faith, without which no man can 
be saved, which at present I freely profess, and truly 
hold, I will most constantly retain and confess entire 
and inviolable (by the help of God) to my last breath ; 
and will take care, as much as in me lies, that it be 
held, taught, and preached by my subjects, or those 
who are subjected to me, or under my care, by any 
authority, in discharge of my duty. 

" I, the aforesaid X, promise, vow, and swear ; So 
help me God, and these Holy Gospels." 

Now, without more than a passing glance at this 
insidious production, it will be found to contain nearly 
twenty additions to a Christian's creed, without the 
reception of which salvation is pronounced impossible, 
and which yet were utterly unknown to our Lord and 
his apostles ! This we shall see more clearly when 
these articles of a Papist's faith come under separate ex- 
amination ; meanwhile it may be remarked, that were 
such an adding to the things written in the lively 
oracles of God allowable, no limit could be placed to their 
augmentation, and the result would be, that which is so 
palpable in Popery, the setting aside of Divine revelation 
for the vain imaginations of men — the most guilty and 
perilous effort of human presumption. 



LETTER III. 



CLAIMS OF ORAL TRADITION EXAMINED' — WRITINGS OF THE 
FATHERS THE SCRIPTURES THE ONLY INFALLIBLE GUIDE. 

TV~e have now taken our place in the midst of two 
conflicting parties ; one formed of Papists, who affirm that 
their system is identical with apostolical Christianity ; 
the other of Protestants, who contend that it is not. The 
ground chosen by them respectively in this controversy 
is of considerable extent ; we must, therefore, traverse 
it gradually, confining our attention to a single point at 
a time, till we have accomplished our present object. 
The one to which we have now to attend, is that of 
oral tradition, which is the basis of a large part of the 
popish system. 

That you may form a clear idea of what is meant by 
the terms just used, let it be observed, that Papists 
assume that the apostles delivered to the primitive 
Christians various unwritten instructions, that these 
have been preserved from generation to generation 



ORAL TRADITION EXAMINED. 



31 



by the Romish church, and that such traditions are 
equal in authority to the sacred writings. The reasoning 
they adopt is therefore obvious : " We have authority for 
what you Protestants condemn in tradition, and, conse- 
quently, in apostolical instructions, from whence it is 
derived ;" and equally apparent is it, that we must show 
that there is no such authority, or accept the system 
which is founded on this basis. 

Now, it is admitted that many things which Jesus said 
and did were not written, (John xxi. 25,) and that the 
apostles communicated a larger amount of truth to the 
churches they originated, than is included in the writings 
respectively addressed to them. The apostle Paul, for 
example, spent three years at Ephesus, and it is evident 
that he must have communicated orally much more than 
is contained in his epistle to that people. It is reason- 
able, therefore, to suppose that in early times, there were 
sayings of the apostles, as well as of Christ, which re- 
mained in the minds of many who had heard them, of 
which there is not, and never was a record. Still there 
are weighty reasons, which lead every thinking mind to 
conclude, that none of these were intended to be trans- 
mitted as authoritative, to succeeding generations. God 
would never have left any doctrine essential to man to 
the hazard of mere oral repetition, when, by his Holy 



32 



CLEMENT. 



Spirit, the apostles were instructed to write to the 
churches. 

It appears, indeed, in the highest degree improbable 
that the Divine will should have been committed to 
human tradition. The Pharisees assumed that they had 
such a mode of instruction ; that Moses had communi- 
cated privately expositions of his law, and that these were 
transmitted orally from age to age. But did our Lord 
recognise their authority ? On the contrary, he showed, 
in the most impressive manner, their absurdity, folly, 
and iniquity, saying, 1 ' Why do ye transgress the com- 
mandment of God by your tradition?" Matt. xv. 3. 
Is it likely, then, that he would give permanence among 
his disciples to a practice which he severely condemned 
as productive of enormous evils ? 

Again : consider the extreme uncertainty of such a 
mode of communication, as arising from the feebleness 
and errors of the human mind. There was no exemption 
from these in the times immediately following that of 
Christ, as is manifest from the statements of the early 
fathers. Even Clement, who was a fellow labourer of 
the apostle Paul, showed the influence of unrestrained 
imagination, when he attempted to prove that Rahab the 
harlot believed in the doctrine of the atonement, from her 
hanging a scarlet thread out of the window of her house, 



JUSTIX MARTYR. 



33 



as a sign to the Israelites. Nor less apparent was an 
erring fancy, when, in the second century, this interpre- 
tation was admitted by Jnstin Martyr, and amplified by 
Irenaeus, when he discovered the Persons of the Trinity 
in the two spies ! 

Justin Martyr appears indeed peculiarly unfitted to 
lay claim to authority. It is notorious that he sup- 
posed a pillar erected on the island of the Tiber to 
Semo Sancus, an old Sabine deity, to be a monument 
erected by the Roman people in honour of the impostor 
Simon Magus. Were so gross a mistake to be made 
by a modern writer, in relating an historical fact, expo- 
sure would immediately take place, and his testimony 
would thenceforward be suspected. And assuredly, 
the same measure should be meted to Justin [Martyr, 
who so egregiously errs in reference to a fact alluded to 
by Livy the historian. 

In addition to this want of accuracy, Justin Martyr 
appears frequently to quote the Scriptures from memory, 
instead of from the text ; and strange indeed are the 
inferences he draws. Thus he imagines there is a 
prophecy of our Lord's crucifixion in the expression, 
" I have spread out my hands all the day unto a 
rebellious people ;" and another in the words of the 
same prophet, which he alters from " the government," 

D 



34 



ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY. 



to, " the power of the cross shall be upon his shoulder." 
Justin Martyr went still farther, and discovered the 
symbol of the cross in the masts of shipping, the 
implements of husbandry, the tools of the carpenter, 
and even the position of the eyebrows and nose in the 
human face, which latter idea he considered to be 
referred to in the words of Jeremiah, " The breath of our 
nostrils, the anointed of the Lord," Lam. iv. 20. And to 
mention only one more fact, as illustrative of the same 
proneness to error and extravagance. Justin attempted 
to show, that as Christ was the Logos, the impersonation 
of the Divine wisdom, so all persons possessed of any 
high degree of this quality, such for instance as Socrates, 
were really Christians. Let us be perfectly ready to 
approve what was good in the sentiments and conduct 
of this father, a martyr to the Christian cause ; but with 
such facts before us, we must not treat him even with 
the deference which is due to many of other times. 

One fact should here be fully kept in view. So 
early as the third century, there was a sect, at the head 
of which was Clement of Alexandria, who professed 
to select all that was good from the writings of the 
philosophers, especially Plato, and then considered the 
system they thus formed, as a gift divinely imparted 
to the Greeks, as the Old Testament was bestowed on 



ORIGEX. 



35 



the Jews, to prepare them for the coming of our Lord. 
To reconcile their scheme to the Scriptures, they en- 
deavoured to find in it hidden or mystical meanings, 
very different indeed from the obvious import of the 
text, but considered by them far more valuable. They 
supposed that the agreement between this occult sense 
and that which had been derived from heathen philo- 
sophy was complete : and they affirmed that the inter- 
pretations thus obtained, had descended to them from 
the apostles, though they had always been concealed 
from the vulgar. 

Orio^en, another of the fathers, is chargeable in conse- 
quence with many extravagancies. Educated in the public 
school of Pantaenus, in which the mode of interpretation 
just described was constantly inculcated, he was likely 
to prove an erring guide, especially when his previous 
inclination to the same course is considered. When a 
leader in a modern sect was asked how it was that so 
much that was novel appeared in the sentiments avowed, 
when they were professedly drawn from the Scriptures, 
the answer was, " What others take literally, Ave receive 
as figurative, 'and what they consider figurative, we 
regard as literal;" and yet this mode, absurd as it 
manifestly is, Origen frequently adopted. Accordingly 
he refused to have more than one coat, would only 
d 2 



36 



ORIGEN. 



wear sandals on his feet, and declined to look for the 
supply of his daily wants, asserting, most untruly, that 
such were the requirements of the gospel. 

Far beyond this, however, did Origen proceed. "When 
urging Ambrose and Theoctetus to repeat the words, 
and form the resolution of the psalmist, " I will take 
the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the 
Lord," he pretends to show that this cup is martyrdom, 
because Jesus said to his disciples, " Are ye able to 
drink of the cup that I shall drink of?" and, " O my 
Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me !" 
His reasoning is, the word cup in the last two passages 
denotes martyrdom, therefore in the former it has the 
same signification. Thus a most erroneous principle is 
adopted, and it is supposed that the same word must 
always mean the same thing, notwithstanding the 
connexion in which it stands plainly shows that a 
different sense is intended. According to this, the 
water which Christ promises to them that believe, is 
merely the common element ; the satisfaction derived 
from doing the will of his Father was literally meat : and 
the ransomed of the Lord may look for crowns and 
thrones like those possessed by the sovereigns of this 
world : a mode of interpretation which a moment's 
enlightened thought would immediately reject. Still 



ORIGEN. 



37 



further, when Origen finds that the three evangelists in 
recording the agony of the garden, describe the Re- 
deemer as saying, not, Let the cup, but, " Let this cup 
pass from me," he ventures to infer that our Lord had 
no fear of violent death, but an objection to that of the 
cross, because he considered some other mode of mar- 
tyrdom to be preferable ; thus daringly charging rebel- 
lion against God on Him who said, " Not as I will, but 
as thou wilt." Thus erring, and even grossly erring as 
the judgments of the fathers often were, it is absolutely 
necessary that their statements should be submitted to 
rigid examination, instead of being regarded as at all 
authoritative. 

There is, however, another reason which leads to 
precisely the same conclusion. The Romanist, be it 
observed, assigns oral tradition as the foundation of 
many things in faith and discipline ; while, on the 
contrary, it is contended, and this on a very simple, 
but forcible princip]e, that they have no such basis. 
Were a foreigner to observe a person wearing in his hat 
on the 29th of May an oak-apple, and to ask the reason 
of so doing, the answer would be, supposing the indi- 
vidual possessed of common intelligence, that it referred 
to a fact in the history of king Charles n., who was 
secreted in an oak after the battle of "Worcester. 



38 



POLTCARP. 



In such a case the inquirer could have full satisfac- 
tion ; for appealing to the history of England, the fact 
■ — of which the oak-apple is a continued memorial — 
would be placed beyond dispute. But, when any one 
asks for authority for holy water, the burning of candles, 
the offering of incense, masses for souls in purgatory, 
the celibacy of the clergy, and many other ceremonies 
and practices in the church of Rome, and the reply is, 
Tradition ; he may go back to the time of its pretended 
origin, and find not a single practice of the kind, nor a 
solitary passage for their support in the writings of the 
primitive fathers. The epistles of Clement and Bar- 
nabas were probably written before the completion of 
the Xew Testament, and therefore their views of Chris- 
tianity were chiefly derived from the oral instructions 
of the apostles. Yet even they never claim any authority 
for these instructions ; but invariably appeal, and that 
decidedly, to the Scriptures, generally of the Old Tes- 
tament. 

The epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians contains 
many allusions to the writings of the apostle Paul ; and 
references are also made in it to passages in the four Gos- 
pels, which are quoted apparently with full satisfaction, 
as parts of a Divine revelation : yet not the slightest 
intimation is given throughout of there being any matter 



THE AUTHORITY OF TRADITION IMPROBABLE. 39 

of faith not included in the inspired records. On the 
contrary, he distinctly says, " The blessed and re- 
nowned Paul did, with all exactness and soundness, 
teach the words of truth ; and being gone from you, 
wrote an epistle to you, into which, if you look, you 
will be able to edify yourselves in the faith which has 
been delivered unto you ; which is the mother of us all, 
being followed with hope, and led on by a general love 
both towards God and towards Christ, and towards our 
neighbours. For if any man has these things, he has 
fulfilled the law of righteousness." 

Here, then, are several reasons which lead to the con- 
clusion that the transmission to us of the Divine will 
by tradition, is improbable ; but there are others yet to 
be adduced which tend to show that it is absolutely 
impossible. For example, it is inconsistent with just 
conceptions of the character of God, Jehovah is perfect 
in wisdom, and hence it is no less characteristic of this 
attribute to choose the fittest means for the accomplish- 
ment of his purposes, than to aim at those ends which 
are the most honourable. The object proposed in the 
case before us, is the guidance of man in reference to his 
highest interests, and the honour of his great and 
glorious Benefactor ; but those who hold the doctrine 
of oral tradition, assume that to his word, which has 



40 THE AUTHORITY OF TRADITION IMPOSSIBLE. 

received his special sanction, has been added a tes- 
timony — committed to the precarious conveyance of the 
human memory — accompanied by no such authority ; 
and also that the superior, so far as the warrant goes, 
is altered, modified, and displaced, by-that which is sub- 
ordinate. Such a course is manifestly unworthy the 
Supreme Being, who throughout his administration, 
appears employing such instruments alone as are appro- 
priate and efficient. 

Again : Jehovah is as certainly the God of truth, and 
consequently his statements, however they come, must 
harmonize. Should it, however, be objected, that the 
full agreement cannot now be perceived between certain 
parts of his revealed word, the answer is, That such 
instances belong exclusively to matters of faith ; from 
those of practice, with which we are now concerned, all 
mystery is shut out. The path of faith is necessarily 
surrounded by " clouds and darkness ;" the path of duty 
is as necessarily clear and open. Harmony is required 
as the condition of any obedience. When, therefore, 
the Scriptures charge us not to bow down to any graven 
image, and tradition presents us with such objects for 
adoration ; when the Scriptures affirm that there is only 
one Mediator between God and man, and tradition 
points to the Virgin Mary, angels, and saints, as holding 



THE AUTHORITY OF TRADITION IMPOSSIBLE. 41 

a similar office ; when the Scriptures declare that we 
are unprofitable servants, and tradition tells of some 
having a superabundance of merit, which may be made 
available to others — it is easy to see that these are 
statements diametrically opposed : hence we may con- 
clude that they could not come alike from the God of 
truth. Surely then we must take the Scriptures, sus- 
tained as they are by such a weight of evidence, and 
reject tradition, whose claims are deceptive, since it is 
equally unworthy of the Divine wisdom and truth. 

It is no less evident, that the doctrine of oral tradition 
casts dishonour on the written word of God. For this 
alone inspiration is pleaded by Papists as well as Pro- 
testants ; and in this very fact there is a strong reason for 
considering it a perfect and infallible standard. Why 
was extraordinary and miraculous aid afforded, except 
to produce a record of the highest order ? If such be 
not the character of the sacred volume, where can any 
testimony, sustaining such a one, be found ? This, too, 
is the distinction to which it prefers the strongest 
claims. What was the language of Moses to the 
Israelites. " Ye shall not add unto the word which I 
command you, neither shall ye diminish aught from it, 
that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your 
God which I command you," Deut. iv. 2. " What 



42 THE SCRIPTURES THE FINAL STANDARD. 



thing soever I command you, observe to do it : thou 
shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it," Deut. 
xii. 32. A large part of the Psalms of David is occu- 
pied by an eulogy on the portion of the inspired record 
which he possessed; thus he writes, " The law of the 
Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of 
the Lord is sure, making wise the simple," Psa. xix. 7. 
Solomon says, " Every word of God is pure : add 
thou not unto his words/' Pro v. xxx. 5, 6. "When 
the Jews were prone to repair to other sources in 
pursuit of knowledge, the language of Isaiah was, 
" To the law and to the testimony : if they speak 
not according to this word, it is because there is no 
light in them," Isa. viii. 20. Our Lord affirmed 
that if the brethren of the rich man would not hear 
Moses and the prophets, they would not be per- 
suaded though one rose from the dead, Luke xvi. 
29 — 31. Paul, the great apostle of the Gentiles, says, 
" Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any 
other gospel unto you than that which we have preached 
unto you, let him be accursed. * As we said before, so 
say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel 
unto you than that ye have received, let him be ac- 
cursed," Gal. i. 8, 9. Addressing Timothy he writes, 
" From a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures, 



THE SCRIPTURES THE FINAL STANDARD. 



43 



which are able to make thee wise unto salvation, 
through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture 
is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for 
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in 
righteousness : that the man of God may be perfect, 
throughly furnished unto all good works," 2 Tim. 
iii. 15 — 17. And peculiarly solemn is the declaration of 
John, as he closes the book of Revelation : " I testify 
unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy 
of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, 
God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in 
this book : and if any man shall take away from the 
words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take 
away his part out of the book of life, and out of the 
holy city, and from the things which are written in this 
book," Rev. xxii. 18, 19. 

Such then are the terms in which the Scriptures 
describe their own character ; for " God has magnified 
his word above all his name ;" and it appears as a 
grant second in importance only to " the unspeakable 
gift" of our Lord Jesus Christ. Yet so far from 
tradition allowing this fact to be recognized, it absolutely 
rejects it, and awfully depreciates the Scriptures as a 
guide to man. It demands, in fact, that revelation should 
give place to tradition. The Roman Catholic writers 



44 THE SCRIPTURES THE FINAL STANDARD. 

uniformly describe the sacred volume as an unintelligible 
record, a dead letter, until explained by the interpreta- 
tions of the church. It has been even affirmed that 
without these, the Scriptures are of no more value than 
Esop's Fables ! Where can a grosser libel, a more 
atrocious calumny, be found ? Our blessed Lord said 
to the Jews of old, "In vain do they worship me, 
teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. Full 
well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may 
keep your own tradition. Making the word of God of 
none effect through your tradition, which ye have de- 
livered : and many such like things do ye," Mark vii. 
7, 9, 13. And in these terms we may justly regard 
him as appealing with the deepest emphasis, to every 
Romanist, and every one who maintains the same error. 

One more reason may yet be cited for the rejection 
of tradition ; it is its entire unfitness to accomplish the 
purposes of God in reference to man. His great design 
is, that we may be " partakers of his holiness." Hence 
the petition of our Lord ; " Sanctify them through thy 
truth : thy word is truth," John xvii. 17. But tradition 
is not a purifying instrument. It can direct the man to 
pass through papistical observances, but if there be no 
other power, it leaves him like the Pharisees of old, a 
whited sepulchre — fair without, but within full of all 



THE SCRIPTURES THE FINAL STANDARD. 45 

uncleanness. And so it must be in every instance ; 
for the renewal of the heart is the result of the Holy 
Spirit's operation ; and his sword is the word of God, 
not tradition. The members of the Roman Catholic 
church who have proved, or now prove themselves to 
be new creatures, are so as the result of a Divine 
energy, accompanying the truths of the gospel. To 
this rule there never was, there never will be one 
solitary exception. And thus, to sum up what has been 
stated, since it is improbable that tradition is autho- 
ritative, because Christ condemned its use by the Jews 
as exceedingly injurious ; because intrusted only to the 
treasury of the human memory and the utterance of 
human lips, it would be an extremely precarious and 
uncertain mode of communication, and because the 
writers of primitive times make no pretension to such 
authority, but appeal invariably to the inspired records : 
so it is impossible that it should be of such authority, 
because it is inconsistent with the wisdom and truth of 
God, degrades that volume on which he has conferred 
especial honour, and is as utterly incompetent to the 
renovation of the soul of man, as a human instrument 
ever must be, to effect a Divine work. 

Here then let the true follower of Christ take his 
stand ; rejecting the deceptive meteor of tradition, and 



46 THE SCRIPTURES THE FINAL STANDARD. 

accepting gratefully that word which is given "as a 
lamp to our feet and a light to our path." Jesus, the 
great Apostle of our profession, is full of grace and 
truth ; a few words from his lips are worth infinitely 
more than human genius ever uttered. Hail any finger 
that points to the spot where he may be found ; any 
arm on which you may lean, while you approach his 
cross ; but withstand every effort to urge or to allure 
you into another path. The traditions of men would 
shroud us in darkness, but " the entrance of his word 
giveth light;" they would leave us "tied and bound 
bv the chain of our sins," but, as he speaks, " we are 
free indeed ;" yea, they would abandon us to the 
bondage of spiritual death, but at his almighty fiat, a 
new life pervades the soul — the life of God, the life of 
immortality. 



LETTER IV. 



THE BIBLE, THE RELIGION OF PROTESTANTS THE CANON OP 

SCRIPTURE NOT DETERMINED BY THE ROMISH CHURCH — CIR- 
CUMSTANCES OP THE PROTESTANT IN REFERENCE TO IT CON- 
TRASTED WITH THOSE OF THE PAPIST — HOSTILITY TO THE 
WORD OF GOD EXHIBITED AND EXPLAINED — SERVICES OP THE 
ROMISH CHURCH IN LATIN. 

The words of Chilling worth, my dear children, are 
worthy to be engraved on your memories. " The 
Bible, I say, the Bible only, is the religion of Protes- 
tants ! Whatsoever else they believe besides it, and the 
plain, irrefragable, indubitable consequences of it, well 
may they hold it as a matter of opinion ; but as 
matter of faith and religion, neither can they, with 
coherence to their own grounds believe it themselves, 
nor require the belief of it of others, without most 
high and most schismatical presumption. I for my part, 
after a long and (as I verily believe and hope) impartial 
search of the true way to eternal happiness, do profess 
plainly, that I cannot find any rest for the sole of my 
foot but upon this rock only. 



48 



THE CANON OF SCRIPTURE. 



" Traditive interpretations of Scripture are pretended; 
but there are few or none to be found : no tradition, but 
only of Scripture, can derive itself from the fountain, but 
may be plainly proved either to have been brought in, in 
such an age after Christ, or that in such an age it was not 
in. In a word, there is no sufficient certainty but of Scrip- 
ture only for any considering man to build upon. This 
therefore, and this only, I have reason to believe : this I 
will profess, according to this I will live, and for this, 
if there be occasion, I will not only willingly, but 
even gladly, lose my life, though I should be sorry that 
Christians should take it from me." (Vol. ii. part 1, 
ch. vi., sec. 56.) 

When, however, we thus contend for the supremacy 
of Scripture, it is often affirmed by the Romanist, that 
the fact of its inspiration rests with his church, by 
which he says, the books thus distinguished from all 
others were finally determined. To this it may be 
replied, that were such the work of the Romish church, 
it was very ill done ; for the council of Trent included 
Tobit and Judith, Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus, and the 
two books of the Maccabees, with the Old Testament 
Scriptures. Now, it is manifest that the books of the 
Apocrypha are without authority ; none of them are 
extant in Hebrew, in which the Old Testament was 



THE CANON OF SCRIPTURE. 



49 



written ; they were the composition, for the most part, 
of Alexandrian Jews, after the prophetic spirit had 
ceased ; not one of their writers advances a direct claim 
to inspiration, and some expressly disclaim it ; nor 
weie they ever received into the sacred canon by the 
Jewish church, or sanctioned by the Redeemer or his 
apostles. In addition to this want of authority, they 
contain many things which are false, and others that 
are absurd ; as when Judith justifies the destruction of 
the Shechemites, which the Scriptures condemn ; when 
Baruc is said to have been carried into Babylon, in 
contradiction to the testimony of Jeremiah that he was 
taken into Egypt ; when a demon is represented as 
expelled by smoke ; or when the tabernacle and ark are 
represented as walking after a prophet in obedience to 
his command ! And yet the Apocrypha forms part of 
the Roman Catholic Bible ! thus blending truth with 
error, the fine gold of Ophir with base alloy, and 
trying to impress alike the stamp of inspiration on 
poison and on food. 

Such is the work of the Roman Catholic church ; but 
the fixing of the canon of Holy Scripture was not its 
work. The determination of what books are to be re- 
ceived a sinspired, rests on totally different grounds. The 
Jews, before the time of the Redeemer, were unable to 

E 



50 



THE CANON OF SCRIPTURE. 



add to the sacred records, having lost the ancient Hebrew- 
tongue, and widely departed from its genius, while apart 
from their reverence for the sacred writings, and the 
Greek version of them which was extant, the sanction of 
Christ to the integrity of the Old Testament, places it 
beyond dispute. It is equally certain, that the Roman 
Church did not determine the canon of the New Testa- 
ment ; since in the decrees of its early councils no cata- 
logue of its books can be found. 

The Gospels, it may be remarked, authenticate each 
other by their concurrent testimony ; while the last re- 
cognising the rest, and adding matters not recorded in 
them, impresses on them the authority of St. John. The 
Acts of the Apostles — the work of St. Luke — the first 
thirteen epistles of St. Paul, the first epistle of St. 
Peter, and the first epistle of St. John, were always 
acknowledged to be written by these persons. And 
as to the other seven books— the epistle to the He- 
brews, the epistle of St. James, the second epistle of 
St. Peter, the second and third epistles of St. John, the 
epistle of St. Jade, and the Revelation — some doubts 
were entertained for a short period as to the right of 
these books to be admitted into the sacred canon ; but 
the question was set at rest as to the whole, by a gene- 
rally concurring testimony concerning them — such a 



ROMAN VERSION OE THE SCRIPTURES 



51 



testimony as there is in reference to the works of Caesar, 
Virgil, or Tacitus, but to a much superior degree ; in a 
word, by evidence both external and internal, This 
attestation indeed was that of foes, as well as of friends ; 
for Celsus, Julian, Porphyry, and other early adversaries 
of Christianity, admitted that the books of the Xew Tes- 
tament were written by the persons whose names they 
bear. And all this was settled before the division of the 
eastern from the western church ; before the papacy had 
assumed the distinct and marked features it now 
presents ; in a word, before the days of Popery. 

Rejecting then the statement, that the Roman Church 
has decided on what is really inspired Scripture, we are 
often met with the charge that the Protestant Bibles are 
corrupt ; and hence it will be desirable to ascertain what 
is the actual position of the parties, at issue in reference to 
the word of God. To begin, therefore, with that of the 
Romanists : it appears from the testimony of Augustine, 
that the Latin church had a very great number of ver- 
sions of the Scriptures, made by unknown authors 
at the first introduction of Christianity, and that as soon 
as any one found in primitive times, a Greek copy, and 
thought himself sufficiently versed in both languages, he 
attempted to translate it. One of these, however, was, 
for several ages, preferred to the rest, for its clearness 
e 2 



52 



THE VULGATE. 



and fidelity ; but, before the end of the fourth cen- 
tury, the alterations made by transcribers either from 
accident or design, were very numerous. At the request, 
and under the patronage of Pope Damasus, Jerome 
undertook to revise it, and render it more conformable 
to the original Greek. But before his task was finished, 
he began a translation of the Old Testament from the 
Hebrew into Latin ; and his version receiving the sanc- 
tion of Pope Gregory i., has been exclusively adopted 
by the Roman Catholic church, under the name of the 
Vulgate. In the sixteenth century, the council of 
Trent decreed that the Vulgate was authentic, and com- 
manded that this version only should be used whenever 
the Bible was publicly read, and in all disputations, ser- 
mons, and expositions. 

A multiplication of copies led to new errors, and to 
three corrected editions ; but the last not being approved 
in every respect by Pope Sixtus v., he commanded a 
new revision of the text to be made, and forbade the 
use of any other. Still this edition was found to be so 
exceedingly incorrect, that his successor, Pope Clement 
viii. suppressed it, and published another, with a simi- 
lar prohibition. 

The predicament of the Ptomanist is therefore not a 
little remarkable, appearing, as he does, obnoxious to 



THE ORIGINAL SCRIPTURES. 



53 



penalty — to that of the council of Trent, if he read any 
other than the version it specially sanctioned ; to that of 
Sixtus, if he read this one : and to that of Clement, if he 
read any but his : and under all circumstances, so far as 
his church is concerned, the Romanist is dependent 
on a translation which has many errors, and gives the 
same place to the Apocrypha that is allotted to the in- 
spired writings of the Old and New Testament. 

We will now look at the position of the Protestant, 
in reference to the Scriptures. Left entirely at liberty 
from the assertions and mandates of the popes, he can 
appeal to the originals. The Hebrew manuscripts of the 
Old Testament at present known to be extant, were 
written between the years 1000 and 1457; and hence it 
is inferred, that all produced before the years 700 or 800 
were destroyed, on account of their variations from 
copies then declared to be genuine by some decree of 
the Jewish senate. And here a singular fact is worthy 
of remembrance. It was supposed that as the Jews who 
are settled in India, and other parts of the East, had for 
so many ages been separated from their brethren in the 
west, their manuscripts would contain a text derived 
from the autographs of the sacred writers, by a channel 
totally independent of the one through which we have 
received the text of our printed Bibles. 



54 



THE SEPTUAGINT. 



These expectations have been fully realized. The 
late Dr. Buchanan brought from India various biblical 
manuscripts ; and among them a copy of the Pentateuch, 
Written on a roll of goat* skins, dyed red, which he dis- 
covered in the record chest of a synagogue of the Black 
Jews in the interior of Malayala. The book of Levi- 
ticus, and the greater part of Deuteronomy are wanting. 
It consists, in its present state, of thirty- seven skins ; 
contains one hundred and seventeen columns of writing, 
perfectly clear and legible ; and exhibits a noble speci- 
men of the form and manner of the most ancient Hebrew 
manuscripts. It is thought that the roll comprises the 
fragments of at least three different rolls, of one common 
material, and exhibits three different specimens of 
writing. The result of a comparison of this manuscript, 
now deposited in the public library at Cambridge, with 
different printed editions, confirms the integrity of the 
Hebrew text. The variations are comparatively few, 
and none of them are found to differ from the common 
reading as to the sense or interpretation. 

It is also worthy of observation, that two or three 
hundred years before Christ, the Jewish Scriptures were 
translated into Greek. This version is known by the 
name of the Septuagint, because it has been said, by 
some, to be the work of seventy, or seventy-two inter- 



THE ORIGINAL SCRIPTURES UNCORRECTED. DO 

preters, who came for this purpose from Judea to Egypt, 
at the request of Ptolemy Philadelphus ; but it was 
evidently made at different times, and by different 
writers, though undoubtedly for the use of the Jews, 
before the birth of Christ. 

We may, therefore, rest perfectly satisfied that the 
Old Testament has come to us uncorrupted, and entire. 
Christians could not have mutilated it, for had they 
done so, the injury would have been exposed by the 
Jews; and of such a one they have never complained m 
And the Jews could not have corrupted it in any essen- 
tial passages, for had they done so, to assign no other 
reason, the fraud would have been declared by Christ 
and his apostles ; or had it been effected after their time, 
their followers, who have been in possession of the 
Jewish books, would have announced it to the world. 
In fact, the Jews did take some liberties with the chro- 
nology of the early patriarchs, about two hundred years 
after Christ, and their having so done was fully exposed 
by Christian writers, who lived soon afterwards. 

The manuscripts of the New Testament, which were 
written either by the apostles, or others under their di- 
rection, in the Greek language, have long since perished, 
leaving us no fragment of then* history. Still, the evi- 
dence for the integrity and uncorruptness of this portion 



56 THE VERSION OF THE SYRIAN CHURCHES. 

of the Scriptures, in every thing material, is perfectly 
satisfactory. Its contents are precisely the same now 
as they were in the first two centuries; for the reverence 
of early Christians for the sacred writings, the multipli- 
cation of copies read in public and private, the silence 
of the enemies of the truth, who would not have failed 
to detect any attempt at alteration, the agreement of all 
the manuscripts and versions extant, as well as that 
which subsists between the New Testament, and all the 
quotations from it which occur in the writings of Chris- 
tians from the earliest to the present time, unite to 
establish the fact. 

It is, moreover, worthy of remark, that Dr. Buchanan 
visited the Syrian churches in Malayala, and was in- 
formed by the inhabitants, that to their knowledge, no 
European had visited the place before. They affirmed 
that their version of the Scriptures was copied from that 
used by the primitive Christians at Antioch, and brought 
to India, before or about the council of Nice, a.d. 325, 
at which, it is said, Johannes, bishop of India, attended. 
It is also declared by the Syrian Christians, that their 
copies have always been exact transcripts of that ver- 
sion, without known error, through every age, to the 
present time. One volume found in a remote church 
of the mountains, contains the Old and New Testa- 



THE AUTHORIZED VERSION. 



57 



merits, engrossed on strong vellum, and written with 
beautiful accuracy. The Syrians assign to it a high 
antiquity ; and from a comparison of it with old manu- 
scripts in Europe, its date has been referred to the 
seventh century. It admits, as canonical, the epistle 
of Clement, but it omits the Revelation, which was not 
received by some churches during a part of the early 
ages. The order of books of the Old and New Testa- 
ment differs from that of the European copies, but in 
almost every other respect, it agrees with those obtained 
ages ago through other channels. 

The opportunity of consulting the original Scriptures, 
as possessed by Protestants, but forbidden to Romanists, 
ought to be highly valued by all who are able to render 
it available ; while those who are not, may often obtain 
satisfaction from the same source, through the medium 
of others in whom they have confidence. There we 
apply to the spring-head of revelation. It is not, how- 
ever, to be inferred, that those who can only appeal to 
" the authorized version " of the Scriptures, are without 
the means of ascertaining accurately the will of God 
According to the testimony of the ablest scholars, the 
cases are few in which the sense of the original is not 
given ; while the words printed in italics, so as to 
complete what the translators considered the meaning, 



58 



THE RHEIMISH TESTAMENT. 



enable the reader to form his own opinion as to 
their accuracy. Improvements might doubtless be 
made, but it should be remembered, that men of emi- 
nence, yet differing among themselves both as to doc- 
trine and discipline, have united in attesting the great 
excellence of the English version of the Bible. 

The circumstances of the Papist, so far as a version of 
the Scriptures in the vernacular tongue is concerned, are 
far inferior to our own. In the year 1582, an English Xew 
Testament was printed at Rheims, but it was translated 
not from the original Greek, but from the Latin Vulgate. 
A multitude of Greek words were allowed to remain un- 
translated, under the pretext that adequate English terms 
in which they might be rendered, were wanting. The 
result was, that it was unintelligible to common readers. 
Hence the remark was made, that "it is a translation 
which needed to be translated," and that its editors, 
whose names are not known, " by all means laboured 
to suppress the light of truth under one pretence or 
other." A folio volume is also accessible, entitled, 
" A Confutation of the Rheimists' Translations, Glosses, 
and Annotations on the Xew Testament, so far as they 
contain manifest impieties, heresies, idolatries, super- 
stitions, profaneness, treasons, slanders, absurdities, 
falsehoods, and other evils " — a formidable catalogue 



THE DOT AY BIBLE. 



59 



indeed — "by Thomas Cartwright, sometime Divinity 
Reader of Cambridge." A still more able exposure of 
the fallacies of this Romish version has been a^so made, 
with great care, by Fulke. 

A translation from the Vulgate of the Old Testament 
was made at Douay, whence it is called the Douay 
Bible, in two volumes quarto, the first of which ap- 
peared in 1609, and the second in 1610. In this case, 
as in that of the Rheimish Testament, notes and anno- 
tations overwhelm the text : united they form the only 
English Bible used by the Romanists of this kingdom. 
These efforts, on their parts, remind us of the bed of 
Procrustes, for as that stretched its victims to the 
utmost, or shortened them at pleasure, so do Romanists 
add to the word of God, or take from it, in the vain 
hope of bolstering up their system, which the Bible, in 
its purity, utterly condemns. 

With these facts fully in view, it now becomes us to 
consider another article of the Popish system' — that the 
Roman church is the only proper interpreter of the 
Scriptures. It assumes this office on the plea of 
infallibility. But here the question arises, Where does 
this infallibility reside ? And this is one not definitely 
answered. If it be said, It is an attribute of the 
pope, as the head of the church, his infallibility can- 



60 



ANCIENT COUNCILS. 



not be admitted ; while the character of many who at- 
tained this office is notorious from their own historians. 
John xxiii. was openly charged, at the council of Con- 
stance, with the blackest and most enormous crimes, 
under seventy articles, and consequently was deposed. 
If it be alleged that councils are infallible, this cannot be 
admitted, in the remembrance of the one that condemned 
John Huss to martyrdom, and which led to a proverb 
among the Swabians, that it would take more than 
thirty years to cleanse Constance by any expiatory sacri- 
fice from those foul abominations which were most dis- 
gracefully committed in it by the council itself, and the 
immoral lives of the prelates that attended. Mark also 
the words of Gregory Nazianzen, one of the canonized 
of the Romish church, who declares that he never saw 
a synod which had a happy termination. He compared 
the dissensions that prevailed to the quarrels of geese 
and cranes, and represents such disputations as calcu- 
lated not to correct and reform, but to demoralize the 
spectator. He characterized the Byzantine assembly 
as a factious, tumultuous rabble, composed only of 
wretches fit for the house of correction, newly taken 
from the plough, the oar, the army, and the chain. 

The words of the celebrated Bossuet on this subject 
are also applicable and important. " So long since as the 



CONFLICTS OF COUNCILS. 



61 



council of Vienne, a great prelate commissioned by the 
pope to prepare matters to be treated upon, laid it 
down for a ground- work to the wbole assembly, that 
they ought to reform the church in the head and 
members. The great schism which happened soon 
after, made this saying current, not among particular 
doctors only, as Gersen, Peter d'Ailly, and other great 
men of those times, but in councils too ; and nothing 
was more frequently repeated in those of Pisa and 
Constance. What happened in the council of Basil, 
where a reformation was unfortunately eluded, and the 
church re-involved in new divisions, is well known." 

Let it be remembered, that this picture was drawn 
by the most able and cautious of the Roman divines, at 
the beginning of the seventeenth century. And what was 
it that prevented the proposed reformation ? A revival 
of the great schism, which for fifty years had kept the 
Roman church divided between two or three popes, 
who claimed at one and the same time to be vicars of 
Christ. It was a fierce contest between the council of 
Constance and Eugenius iv. who had convened it, and 
a sentence of excommunication pronounced by the 
council against this very pope. It was a rival council, 
convoked at Ferrara by Eugenius, when thus cut off, 
where he employed the same arms against the fathers 



62 



CONFLICTS OF COUNCILS. 



assembled at Basil. It was the deposition of Eugenius, 
and the installation of Felix v. by the offended 
council ; and, in fine, the triumph of Rome over a 
reformation needed alike by the head and the members. 
The head, unwilling to be reformed, imprecated the 
curse of God on the members ; and the members, 
finding the head incurable, consigned it to perdition, 
and chose for themselves another. Such are the 
events which took place in " the council of Basil, 
where a reformation was unfortunately eluded, and the 
church re-involved in new divisions ;" and such is a 
fair specimen of the unity of the Romish church* 

To look for any other standard of infallibility in 
that church would be equally vain. Of infallibility 
much is affirmed ; but the place of its residence has 
yet to be pointed out. Chillingworth said truly, " I 
see plainly and with mine own eyes, that there are 
popes against popes, councils against councils, some 
fathers against others, the same fathers against them- 
selves, a consent of fathers of one age against a consent 
of fathers of another age, the church of one age against 
the church of another age," (vol. ii., part 1, chap, vi.) 
But were it otherwise, and were any individual an- 
nounced to be infallible, still, with the Bible, bearing on 
it the impress of inspiration, in our hands, we must re- 



OBJECTIONS TO ROMISH AUTHORITY. 



G3 



quire evidence of equal authority with the word of 
God, before we yielded to his commands, as supplying 
the law of our practice, or our faith. 

But never can such evidence he given. A true fol- 
lower of the Lord Jesus Christ cannot therefore submit 
to the authority of the church of Rome, because to do 
so would be a voluntary degradation of the mental 
powers given him by God* Not that reason is to be 
constituted a judge of religion ; we are never to submit 
its doctrines to this test, but Ave are to try its evidence. 
We are to examine the claims of the Scriptures to 
their proper rank, and to settle by the laws of criticism 
and common sense their import ; but here human 
reason is to stop. A voice addresses us, saying, 
" Hitherto shalt thou come, but no farther." To pass 
the appointed limit is to exchange the character of a 
scholar for that of a teacher, and to incur the presump- 
tion of a worm of the earth dictating to its Creator. 
But not to proceed thus far, were to sink to the level 
of irrational animals, and to proclaim our incapacity for 
the pursuit of truth to be like theirs. The natural 
world is opened to the full range of the powers of man, 
and none should attempt to shut him out from traversing 
the moral world. Here is the field for his noblest 
employments, for never is he so properly employed as 



64 OBJECTIONS TO ROMISH AUTHORITY. 



when endeavouring to acquire just views of the character 
of God, his relation to him as a responsible creature, 
the obligations it behoves him to regard, and the hopes 
it is his privilege to entertain. 

Again ; a being endowed with reason, and account- 
able to his Maker, ought not to submit to the authority 
of the church of Rome, because of his individual re- 
sponsibility. Can the head of that community, for the 
time being, be accountable to God for all its members, 
over whom he rules ? And yet, unless this were the case, 
and moreover even if he offered so to be, as his priests 
often propose to individuals, unless this arrangement 
were admitted by the Judge of the whole earth, the 
claim of his supremacy is most preposterous and im- 
pious. It is saying in effect, " Your sentiments on all 
matters of religion, the forms of your worship, all that 
concerns your spiritual and immortal interests, shall be 
fully prescribed ; there shall be in, fact, an absolute 
dominion over the mind and the heart ; and that from 
your earliest days of reason to the last moments of your 
existence :" while an inspired apostle says, " Everyone 
of us shall give account of himself to God," Rom. 
xiv. 12. Conscience, too, responds to this and similar 
declarations ; for while it judges of right and wrong in 
our individual conduct, it summons us to the higher 



OBJECTIONS TO ROMISH AUTHORITY. 65 

tribunal of our [Maker, and anticipates the consequences 
of his sentence in another state of existence. Nor is 
this all, for it is equally clear that individual responsi- 
bility is proportioned to privilege. To quote, in proof, 
the words of Christ, let us look at the following declar- 
ation ; " And that servant, which knew his lord's will, 
and prepared not himself, neither did according to his 
will, shall be beaten with many stripes. For unto 
whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much re- 
quired : and to whom men have committed much, of 
him will they ask the more," Luke xii. 47, 48. It is 
manifest, therefore, that every man must stand before 
the great white throne ; that every one must answer for 
himself, and that according to the advantages he 
has possessed : nor is it possible for any community, or 
any individual, to relieve any mortal being of one iota 
of the solemn responsibility under which he is placed — 
how then can any one possessed of reasoning powers, 
admit authority which leaves him without one holy 
principle, and without excuse, to endure the pangs of 
eternal condemnation ? 

For, be it observed, as the last reason now to be men- 
tioned, that a follower of Christ cannot submit to the 
authority of the church of Rome, because to do so 
would incur the aggravated condemnation denounced 

F 



66 OBJECTIONS TO ROMISH AUTHORITY. 

against the violation of the most explicit commands. 
The following passages convey the meaning and force 
of many others. " These words, which I command 
thee this day, shall be in thine heart : and thou shalt 
bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall 
be as frontlets between thine eyes ; and thou shalt write 
them upon the posts of thine house, and on thy gates," 
Dent. vi. 6—9, 11, 18, 19. 64 Seek ye out of the book 
of the Lord, and read," Isa. xxxiv. 16. " Search the 
Scriptures ; for in them ye think ye have eternal life : 
and they are they which testify of me," John v. 39. 
" Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all 
wisdom," Col. iii. 16. " Desire the sincere milk of the 
word," 1 Peter ii. 2. " Prove all things ; hold fast that 
which is good," 1 Thess. v. 21. 

Not to refer to other parts of the Scriptures, designed 
to encourage and stimulate, by various means, to their 
personal study, what can be replied to the claim that is 
set up, in the view of these inspired precepts ? Only 
that as we appreciate the blessings connected with obe- 
dience, and tremble at the judgments which will fall 
on the transgressor, we reject the authority of the 
church of Rome, in the resolution, by the grace of God, 
to pursue the one, and to flee the other. 

Again, then, let every true Protestant say with Chil- 



THE BIBLE THE INFALLIBLE RULE. 67 

lingworth, as lie points to the Bible, " Propose me any 
thing out of this book, and require whether I believe it or 
no, and seem it never so incomprehensible to human 
reason, I will subscribe it with hand and heart, as 
knowing no demonstration can be stronger than this — 
God hath said so, therefore is it true. In other things I 
will take no man's liberty of judgment from him, neither 
shall any man take mine from me. I will think no 
man the worse man, nor the worse Christian, I will 
love no man the less, for differing in opinion from me. 
And what measure I mete to others, I expect from them 
again. I am fully assured that God does not, and there- 
fore that men ought not, to require any more of any man 
than this — To believe the Scripture to be God's word, 
to endeavour to find the true sense of it, and to live 
according to it." (Vol. ii. part 1, chap. vi. sec. 56.) 

Popery enjoins, it is obvious, a diametrically oppo- 
site course. Among the canons of the council of 
Toulouse, held in the early part of the thirteenth cen- 
tury, there is one which prohibits the laity from having 
the books of the Old or New Testament, " unless it 
be a psalter, or a breviary, and the rosary," and does not 
permit them so much as to translate them into the 
vulgar tongue. The language of the council of Trent 
should also be noticed : " Since it is manifest by 
f 2 



68 THE ROMANISTS PROHIBIT THE SCRIPTURES. 



experience, that if the sacred books in the vulgar tongue 
are allowed every where without distinction, more of 
injury than of profit will be the result, through the 
rashness of men — let it in this respect rest with the 
judgment of the bishop or inquisitor that, with the 
advice of the parish priest or confessor, they may grant 
the reading of the Bible, translated by Catholic authors 
in the vulgar tongue, to those who they judge will be 
able to derive from the reading, not injury, but an in- 
crease of faith and piety ; which liberty they are to have 
in writing. But whoever shall presume, without such 
permission, to read them, or to have them, unless the 
hooks are first given up to the ordinary, cannot obtain the 
forgiveness of sins. Booksellers who shall sell, or other- 
wise dispose of, the Bible in the vulgar tongue to a per- 
son not having the prescribed license, shall forfeit the 
price of the books, to be converted by the bishop to 
pious uses, and shall be liable to other punishments 
according to the magnitude of the offence in the 
judgment of the bishop. But regulars may neither 
read nor purchase it without a license obtained from 
their own superiors." (See De Libris Prohibitis, Re- 
gula ix.) 

The influence of this decree may be traced to the 
present day, in a fearful ignorance among Romanists 



THE ROMANISTS PROHIBIT THE SCRIPTURES. 69 

of the revealed will of God. A few proofs of its exist- 
ence may here be given. 

A gentleman whom I had recently the pleasure of 
seeing, when in Mexico, a few years since, entered one 
of the churches, and was occupied for some time in 
looking at its pictures and statues. While thus engaged 
he suddenly heard the sound of footsteps behind him, 
and turning round he observed one of the priests ap- 
proaching. A conversation then ensued as to the various 
objects in the church, which was, at length, interrupted 
by the priest remarking that it was his turn to read a 
part of the Psalms of David in the daily service. On 
looking at the book in the hands of the priest, the tra- 
veller remarked, " These are not the Psalms of David ;" 
an assertion which the former at once disputed : still he 
was in error, for he was actually about to read part of 
one of the Epistles of John. It afterwards appeared, 
that though this individual had been a priest for many 
years, he had never seen a Bible ! 

The Rev. J. Godkin says, in his " Guide from the 
Church of Rome to the Church of Christ," which is, in 
fact, his own history, in reference to an early part of his 
course : — 

" I was sitting with my friend, the schoolmaster, in 
the summer-house, to which we were accustomed in fine 



70 THE ROMANISTS PROHIBIT THE SCRIPTURES. 

weather to retire, to pursue our studies after school 
hours, as I had engaged to teach him French in ex- 
change for his Latin. The declining sun darted down 
his golden beams through the openings of the green 
canopy above us, and illuminated the gilt edges of my 
Bible, a corner of which was conspicuous in my pocket. 
We were at that moment warmly disputing about the 
grammatical construction of a particular passage, when 
his eye was suddenly arrested by the corner of the 
Bible. He was silent — blushed — looked at my face, 
then at the Bible, and then at my face again. 

" ' What is that in your pocket ? ' he inquired, with a 
look that spoke surprise and anger. 

" ' The question,' I replied, ' is one that I might be 
excused from answering : but I have no hesitation in 
avowing that it is a Bible,' and so saying I handed it 
to him. 

" 4 Where did you get this ? ' said he, glancing at the 
title page. 

" £ Mr. N persuaded me to take it. T was un- 
willing to do so ; but as he promised to take so many 
copies of the poem, I thought it hard to refuse, and so 
brought it with me merely to please him. But were it 
otherwise,' said I, ' may I ask why I am not at liberty 
to read what book I please ? ' 



THE ROMANISTS PROHIBIT THE SCRIPTURES. 71 

64 ' Oh, of course,' said he drily, 6 but in taking that 
book from such a man, you countenance the calumny 
that Catholics have no Bibles themselves.' 

6 i 6 That is a fact, and not a calumny, so far as we and 
our neighbours are concerned ; for I do not know a 
single person that has one, with the exception of Mr. 

P , who seems to keep his two folio volumes, with 

their notes and comments, more for ornament than 
use.' 

4 6 £ Use ! ' said he with a sneer, ' I hope you are not 
among the number of those who deem the Bible a useful 
book. I hope there are few in the nineteenth century 
that . entertain such an obsolete notion, at least, beyond 
those little coteries that fatten on the property of the 
public' 

" ' Still, my friend, it seems not quite just to pass 
such a sweeping censure on the Bible, without examin- 
ing of it. It might turn out, after all, not so worthless, or 
so pernicious a book, as we are willing to think. We 
are condemning it, you know, unheard, and this is un- 
justas regards the Bible, and foolish as regards ourselves. 
What if this book should be found to be indeed the 
word of God ? I confess that this reflection gives me 
considerable uneasiness. This may be weakness, and 
such I am sure it appears to you ; but it may more 



72 THE ROMANISTS PROHIBIT THE SCRIPTURES. 

probably be the beginning of wisdom. However/ I con- 
tinued, with an air of cheerfulness, ' you need not fear 
that I am about to do any thing injurious to my cha- 
racter. I shall return this book, because it is dangerous 
to keep it ; yet I cannot but lament the tyranny of 
public opinion, to which even you and I, free-thinkers 
as we are, are compelled to bow.' 

" My friend, of course, did not betray my secret, and 
it extended no farther until I had an opportunity of 
restoring the Bible. 

" Well, I was ashamed of this blessed book ! I was 
disconcerted and confused when it was discovered in my 
possession ! Alas, how blind — how foolish is man ! 
Here was a book which revealed the will of my Creator, 
which unfolded the character of God, the condition of 
man, the awful doom that awaits the sinner, and the 
means by which the doom may be averted ; but instead 
of joyfully receiving this glorious revelation — instead of 
studying with avidity this charter of salvation, and 
earnestly appropriating its blessings, I was actually 
ashamed of it, and wished to cast it from me, as the 
viper was flung from the hand of Paul. 6 O God ! what 
is man, that thou art mindful of him, and the son of 
man, that thou dost consider him.' " 

To add only one more fact of the same kind : — 



THE ROMANISTS PROHIBIT THE SCRIPTURES. 73 

At the Annual Meeting of the British and Foreign 
Bihle Society, in 1839, the Rev. T. S. Grimshawe 
said, in reference to a visit recently paid to Italy : — 

" To show how little the Bihle is known, even by 
some who ought to be the interpreters of it, I may state 
that a priest one day entered into conversation with me, 
and challenged me to enter on the points of controversy 
between us. I told him I had no particular wish to do 
so ; but if he challenged me, I was Protestant enough 
to accept it ; provided that the basis of our argument 
might be a reference to the Bible. 

ci Having accepted this as the basis, he said, ' Xow, 
sir, what is your objection to us ? ' 

"I said, 4 My objection is this — You exclude the 
Bible.' 

" 1 We do not exclude the Bible ; you Protestants are 
constantly casting that imputation on us ; we do not 
exclude the Bible.' 

" I said, ' Sir, pardon me : I can find the Bible no 
where here ; or else it is in such a form, as almost to 
prevent the possibility of its purchase. I went into one 
of the principal booksellers' shops in Rome the other 
day, and said, "I want a Bible." " Very well, sir; 
here is one." 4 4 Why," I said, "this is a series of 
volumes; do you call this the Bible?" " Yes, sir" 



74 THE ROMANISTS PROHIBIT THE SCRIPTURES. 

" Pray, how many volumes are there ? It looks more like 
a library than the Bible." V Sir," he said, " there are 
seventy-seven volumes." Seventy-seven volumes ! I 
counted them one after the other, and the number was 
seventy-seven. In fact, the work was so overladen with 
notes, that it was like the Tarpeian maid sinking under 
the weight of her ornaments ; you could scarcely re- 
cognise the text, owing to the mass of note and com- 
ment with which it was encompassed. 

" The priest replied to all this : 6 Well, we have the 
Bible.' 

" I said, 6 Pray, sir, have you one in your possession 
at this moment ? ' 
" 'I have.' 

" 'Will you have the kindness to produce it?' 

" He produced what he called his Bible ; but what 
was my astonishment, when I found it to be a Roman 
Breviary ! 

" I immediately said, ' Pray, sir, do you call this the 
Bible ? ' 

' i t Yes, look at it : here is a reference to the Psalms : 
here are extracts from Isaiah and Jeremiah, and from 
one sacred writer and another : surely it is the same 
thing.' 

" I said, ' No, sir ; extracts from a book can by no 



THE WANT OF THE BIBLE IN FRANCE. 75 

argument of logic ever be considered to be the book 
itself.' 

" But all that I could get from him was the common 
phrase, 6 C'est la meme chose V 'It is the same thing : 
: it makes no difference/ " 

Such a destitution of the word of God must be 
productive of the greatest evils. No wonder that one 
whom I well knew, when writing from France, said, 
' ' Could every pious reader of this letter be awakened 
on the morning of the sabbath, as I have been, by the 
clang of the anvil, and, on his entrance into the streets 
and markets, observe business prosecuted or suspended 
according to the tastes of the tradesmen ; could he 
mark the workmen on seasons of religious festival, 
erecting the triumphal arch on the sabbath morning 
and removing it on the sabbath evening, and notice the 
labourers at their option toiling all day at the public 
works ; could he see the card-party in the hotel, and 
the ninepins before every public house, and the pro- 
menaders swarming in all the suburbs ; could he be 
compelled to witness on one Sunday a grand review of 
a garrison, and on another, be disturbed by the music 
of a company of strolling players ; and could he find, 
among all this profanation, as I have found, no temple 
to which to retreat, save the barren cliff or the ocean 



76 THE WANT OF THE BIBLE IN ITALY. 

cave, surely lie would feel and proclaim the truth, 
6 This people is destroyed for lack of knowledge.' " 
Yet how can it be otherwise, when they are destitute, 
and that through the wilful and cherished enmity of 
others, of the pure word of God ? 

Persecution for the possession of the word of God, 
so common in former times, is not yet extinct. " During 
the time I was in Rome, but a few months ago," said 
the Rev. T. S. Grimshawe, on the occasion already 
referred to, " there were two Augustine friars who had 
received Bibles, I believe from the beneficence of this 
Society ; and the effect had been, that their minds were 
enlightened ; the character of their preaching was 
immediately changed ; and (on the principle, that 
when a man once perceives the value of Divine truth 
himself, he feels a desire to communicate that blessing 
to others) these Augustine friars went through different 
parts of the country, as we should say, preaching the 
gospel, and producing a powerful effect. At length 
they were checked by the authority of the church of 

Rome, and ]odged in the castle of St. ; and there 

I left them, imprisoned for that great crime of reading 
the Bible, and preaching according to its Divine 
contents. And further, to show what the degree of 
persecution is, I would beg briefly to mention, that a 



WHY ARE THE SCRIPTURES PROHIBITED? 77 

Swiss minister, distributing the Bible in a part of Italy, 
the name of which, perhaps, it may be more prudent 
not to disclose, was, in consequence, visited by the 
1 police, and commanded to leave the country in forty- 
: eight hours. I may also state, that though he had 
distributed only a small portion of his books, I think 
about twenty-three Bibles and Testaments, those that 
had received them were actually imprisoned, some for 
six weeks, some for seven, and one for ten weeks, in 
consequence of having a copy in their possession." 

And why are the Scriptures thus withheld and 
forbidden ? Because, as the pope's nuncio candidly 
said to Dr. Pinkerton, " The papal church has some 
usages not supported by the Bible ;" he might have 
said many ; and still further, many directly in contra- 
diction thereto. Xo man wishes that the light of the 
sun should be withheld from others, and that the gloom 
of midnight should rest on the earth, unless he is 
engaged in some design which it is his intention that 
they should not see, and is concerned that he may 
practise his nefarious deeds with impunity. It is an 
interest hostile to the Bible which has impelled the 
church of Rome to impede and prevent its circulation, 
and at the same time to blaspheme its Author, as if it 
were a book too obscure to be understood, and too 



78 SERVICES OF THE ROMANISTS IN LATIN. 

dangerous to be meddled with by the common people, 
except at their peril. Its outcry against the Scriptures 
reminds us of Milton's Satan saying to the sun, "I 
hate thy beams," because they remind him of the 
splendour from which he has fallen. Nor is this all ; 
it cannot be concealed that the diffusion of the word of 
God must prove fatal to Popery. Prophecy has foretold 
the coming of the Lord, and " he will destroy it by the 
spirit of his mouth, and the brightness of his coining." 
A due consideration of these facts will deprive the 
opposition of Papists to the word of God of all mystery. 

It may be here stated, that the services of the Romish 
Church are invariably conducted in the Latin language, 
which of course very few, if any, but the priests, 
understand ; and that the practice differs alike from 
that of the ancient Jews, and of the apostles under the 
Christian dispensation. Under the Mosaic law it was 
said, " They read in the book in the law of God 
distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to 
understand the reading," Nehemiah viii. 8. Were it 
not required to know what is stated, the gift of tongues 
on the day of Pentecost w^as absolutely unnecessary ; but 
as this cannot for a moment be admitted, this remark- 
able bestowment condemns emphatically this practice 
of the Romish church, as the whole reasoning of the 



SERVICES OF THE ROMANISTS IN LATIN. 79 

apostle Paul does in the 1 Cor. xiv. 19. Here he says, 
" In the church I had rather speak five words with my 
understanding, that by my voice I might teach others 
also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue 
and thus the Romanist, and the apostle guided by 
Divine inspiration, are completely at issue. 

For the adoption of the Romish practice, however, it 
is easy to account ; it gives precedence to the church 
of Rome in the view of its members, as Latin was the 
language of that city — it accords wdth the only version 
of the Scriptures authorized by them, w 7 hich is in 
the same tongue — it serves to unite the priests in a 
common bond, and to separate them from the laity— 
and above all, it keeps up that ignorance, in the depths 
of which Popery has its greatest prosperity. 



LETTER V. 



THE POPE THE HEAD OF THE ROMISH CHURCH — HIS CLAIMS 
EXAMINED AND REFUTED— THE PONTIFEX MAXIMUS OF THE 
HEATHENS. 

The head of the Tlomish church is the pope. Nor is his 
a merely nominal dominion : on the contrary, it is great 
and extensive. Even at the distance from his residence, 
the Vatican, of the Jesuits' College at Stonyhurst, or 
that of the Benedictines at Douay, his supremacy is 
acknowledged, and his influence, and that of the car- 
dinals who sit in his name, (for often the pope is merely 
a tool in the hands of others,) is felt ; while this operates 
also throughout the wide circle often traversed by their 
inmates. It is desirable, therefore, to glance at his state, 
and then to examine his pretensions. 

As the palace of the pontiff is vast and magnificent, 
there are probably a greater number of apartments to 
be traversed amidst appearances of much splendour, in 



THE POPE. 



81 



an introduction to him, than to any sovereign of the 
earth. According to Fleury, a prelate in full robes 
always waits in his antechamber ; and when the bell 
rings, the door of the pope's apartment opens, and he 
is seen seated in a chair of state, with a little table be- 
fore him. The person presented kneels once at the 
threshold, again in the middle of the room, and lastly 
at the feet of the pontiff, who presents his hand to raise 
him, or allows him to kiss the cross embroidered on his 
shoes. A short conversation then follows, when the 
visitor is dismissed with a slight present of consecrated 
beads or medals, as a memorial. Again the ceremony 
of genuflexion is passed through, and the doors close. 
Such is the description given by one writer : but to 
the practice as thus described, there are, doubtless, some 
exceptions. 

An American clergyman, who visited Rome in 1838, 
describing, in his " Glimpses of the Old World," a visit 
to the church of St. Gregory on the side of the Ccelian 
Mount, says : — 

" As soon as we had passed the door, we found our- 
selves in a long hall or entrance, which led into the 
church from a back street. From the preparations that 
were here going forward, we saw at once that some 
unusual event was on the eve of transpiring. A group 

G 



82 



THE POPE. 



of monks, with their cowls thrown back, and with the 
intensest interest depicted upon their countenances, 
stood near the outer door, in apparent anxious waiting. 
They did not, however, wait long. A venerable old 
man, clothed in scarlet, attended by a large retinue, 
almost immediately entered, at whose approach the 
monks fell back with the most respectful deference. He 
had scarcely trod upon the threshold, before a dozen of 
his attendants gathered round him ; some in scarlet 
livery, others in rich canonicals, and others in military 
equipage, all of whom seemed contending to show him 
most respect — two or three taking his hat, as many 
more his cloak, and a dozen others laying hold of the 
train of his robes, to bear them behind them. 

" My first impression was, that this was some distin- 
guished cardinal, holding some high official station. He 
passed immediately by us, and entered the church by 
the door through which we had come into this entrance, 
with thirty or forty persons in attendance upon him. 
These were generally clad in monastic, military, and 
clerical dress ; though some of the attendants appeared 
to combine both the military and clerical character — 
wearing both the sword and the gown. We, of course, 
followed them, as we were determined to see all we 
could of the distinguished unknown visitant. No 



THE POPE. 



83 



sooner had he entered the church, than he passed along 
before one of the altars, and dropped upon his knees 
upon a crimson velvet cushion, which had previously 
been placed upon the stone pavement for this purpose. 
All his attendants, bishops, priests, monks, and clerical 
esquires, instantly placed themselves two and two upon 
their knees behind him, holding their hats to their 
faces. They formed quite a long procession, and though 
their attitude was very devout, most of them were 
laughing and talking to each other as though they en- 
joyed the whole thing very much. 

" I now had an opportunity of making some observa- 
tions upon the individual to whom such marked defer- 
ence was paid, as I stood only a few feet from the spot 
where he knelt. His appearance indicated a person 
who had passed full threescore and ten years. His 
hair was snowy white, though cut rather short ; and 
the crown of his head, like most of the Romish priests, 
was shaven, and covered, except while in prayer, with a 
little skull-cap. There was a marked decision and 
sternness in his countenance, although his face was not 
destitute of an expression of kindliness. His silent 
prayer was soon finished, and he then arose ; and pass- 
ing the high altar, before which he reverently bowed 
he went to an altar on the other side of the church, 

g 2 



84 



THE POPE. 



corresponding to the one before which he had previously 
kneeled, where was another crimson cushion, upon 
which he knelt, and passed through a ceremony similar 
to the one I have already described. He then tripped 
off, with an air of indifference, through a side-door into 
the vestry, followed by all his attendants. We had be- 
come so anxious to find out who this distinguished 
personage was, that we mingled in his train, and fol- 
lowed on to see the end of the matter. The room into 
which we entered was very spacious, and surrounded 
with beautiful paintings. The person who had so much 
attracted our attention, flung himself very, carelessly 
into a splendid chair, or throne, placed in the centre of 
the room, when the whole attending crowd of monks 
instantly gathered around him, and falling upon their 
knees, eagerly bent forward to kiss the cross upon the 
toe of his slipper. The secret was now developed ! This 
was the pope." 

Middleton strongly remarks on this homage when he 
says, " Of all the sovereign pontiffs of pagan Rome, it 
is very remarkable, that Caligula was the first who ever 
offered his foot to be kissed by any who approached 
him, wdiich raised a general indignation through the city 
to see themselves reduced to suffer so great an indig- 
nity. Those who endeavoured to excuse it, said that 



THE POPE. 



85 



it was not done out of insolence, but vanity, and for 
the sake of showing his golden slipper set with jewels. 
Seneca declaims upon it in his usual manner, as the 
last affront to liberty, and the introduction of a Persian 
slavery into the manners of Rome. Yet this servile 
act, unworthy either to be imposed or complied with 
by man, is now the standing ceremonial of Christian " 
(Middleton would more properly have said anti-Chris- 
tian) " Rome, and a necessary condition of access to 
the reigning popes ; though derived from no better 
origin than the frantic pride of a brutal Pagan tyrant." 

On some public occasions the robes of the pope, with 
the exception of the stole, are the same as those of a 
bishop in pontificals, and of the colour, which is white, 
instead of purple. The tiara on his head seems origi- 
nally to have been an ordinary mitre, such as is still worn 
by the Greek patriarchs. The three circlets, which have 
raised it into a triple crown, were added at different 
periods. The lowest seems to have been at first a mere 
border, but gradually enriched with gold and diamonds ; 
the second was invented by Boniface xin., about the year 
1300, and the third was added towards the middle of 
the fourteenth century. In ordinary ceremonies, the 
pope wears the common episcopal mitre : the use of the 
tiara is far more rare. 



86 



THE POPE. 



The American writer lately quoted describes the 
object of the pope, in visiting the church, to have been 
the inspection of a painting, which had been recently set 
up, and as he followed him to the door, adds : — " Here 
he was again invested with his riding dress, which was 
scarlet even to the hat. As he left the church, the re- 
port having already spread of the visit of his holiness, 
a great crowd had collected, who prostrated themselves 
before him, as though eager to kiss the ground upon 
which he trod. An elegant chariot, with six horses, 
was in waiting to receive him, surrounded by servants 
in livery, and a troop of mounted soldiers in full mili- 
tary dress, glittering in rich armour. Behind his 
chariot stood the carriages of five or six cardinals, with 
their attendants in splendid livery. The pope did not 
linger to receive the adoration of the crowd, but spring- 
ing into his carriage almost by a single bound, and the 
attending cardinals into theirs, the whole train, pre- 
ceded by the troop of cavalry, hastily drove off.* The 
whole street for a moment seemed to glitter with arms, 
and splendour, and gay equipage. The prancing and 
richly caparisoned steeds, however, quickly bore away 
this princely band from our sight, and the splendid 
pageant vanished like a dream. We now saw nothing 
around us, where but a moment before all was glittering 



THE POPE. 



87 



and gaiety, save a crowd of filthy ragged beggars. This 
is just what Popery leaves every where behind it. Every 
where in papal countries, while a few are elevated to 
great eminence and splendour, we see the mass of the 
people in poverty and wretchedness. As this splendid 
pageant passed away, I could not but think how unlike 
the meek and lowly Jesus, was this haughty kingly 
Roman pontiff — who professes to be the vicegerent of 
the Son of God." 

I will make another extract from the same authority, 
in reference to the feast of the Annunciation: — 

" The approach of the pope, as described by one of 
our company, who remained without to witness the 
spectacle, was very imposing. The whole open area 
was filled with crowds of people. All the windows and 
balconies around the piazza were hung with crimson, 
and occupied by spectators. It had more the appear- 
ance of a fete day than of the sabbath. Here also were 
assembled several companies of troops, in martial array, 
with noise of drums, to receive his holiness. On this 
occasion, thirty-five cardinals were present ; each of 
their carriages was decked with princely splendour, 
attended by four servants in beautiful livery, while the 
gay spirited animals that drew them, covered with rich 
trappings, might have stood for the picture of Job's war- 



88 



THE POPE. 



horse. The cardinals, one after another, all arrived 
before the pope, but did not leave their carriages until 
his appearance. At length his train appeared. He 
rode in a chariot drawn by six horses, which was 
literally so entirely made of burnished brass, silver, 
and gold, that it seemed like the chariot of the sun. 
The moment his train reached the crowded area, the 
people gave way, the cardinals sprang from their car- 
riages, the multitude fell upon their knees, the drums 
beat, and the soldiers presented their arms in sign of 
military reverence. 

c< The scene within I witnessed myself. Almost 
immediately after I arrived, the church became thronged 
with spectators. Very soon the Swiss guard, with their 
broad red plumes, their black and yellow striped hose, 
their singular breeches, and many coloured coats, belted 
with a girdle of yellow, each bearing a long glittering 
spear or halberd, arrived. Soon one and another company 
of troops, in full military dress, marched into the church 
with their brightly burnished arms, and arranged them- 
selves in two lines down the nave of the church, quite 
to the door at which the procession was to enter. 
Directly a portion of the pope's body guards, who 
form the mounted cavalcade that always attends his 
person, when he rides out, made their entrance, clothed 



THE POPE. 



89 



in elegant military costume, and equipped with boot, 
and sword, and spur. With a swaggering military air 
they stalked through the church, and planted them- 
selves directly around the point of entrance to the seats 
of the cardinals. This all occurred before the pope 
reached the neighbourhood of the church. At length 
the organ struck up a march, The drums were heard 
beating without. The guns of the soldiers rung on the 
stone pavement of the house of God, as, at the bidding 
of their officer, they grounded, shouldered, and pre- 
sented arms. How unlike the sabbath — how unlike 
religion — how unlike the suitable preparation to receive 
a minister of the meek and lowly Jesus ! Xow moving 
slowly up, between the two armed lines of soldiers, 
appeared a long procession of ecclesiastics, bishops, 
canons, and cardinals, preceding the Roman pontiff, 
who was borne on a gilded chair, clad in vestments re- 
splendent as the sun. His bearers were twelve men 
clad in crimson, being immediately preceded by several 
persons carrying a cross, his mitre, his triple crown, 
and other insignia of office. As he was thus borne 
along on the shoulders of men, amid the gaping crowds, 
his head was shaded or canopied by two immense fans, 
made of peacocks' feathers, which were borne by two 
attendants. He, at length, was set down in the midst 



90 



THE POPE. 



of the cardinals, near their seats, and conducted with 
great state to his throne. Then each cardinal, with his 
crimson train spread at full length, approached his 
throne, and went through the ceremony of salutation. 
Then followed the mass, with all its usual chaunting, 
music, kneeling, bowing, crossing, carrying of candles, 
burning of incense, ringing of bells, and elevation of the 
host. After all this was finished., the twelve girls,* at- 
tended by some dozen officers, w r ere brought in, walking 
up between the two lines of soldiers. They w T ere dressed 
in white. Over their dress was drawn a singular outer 
garment, coming down to the waist, the top of which 
formed a hood or cap, which also had connected with it, 
a case or covering for the lower part of the face, by 
which the mouth was completely barricaded, Poor 
girls ! they had frequently to pull down this mouth- 
covering in order to breathe. 

" The cap or hood was surmounted with a tinsel 
crown, ornamented with artificial flowers. They each 
bore a lighted taper, and came up along by the seats 
of the cardinals — went up the steps that led to the 
papal throne, and there bowing down before his holiness, 

* These girls are educated in a large and wealthy convent, where a certain 
number of poor children are instructed, either to become nuns, or to support 
themselves by their industry. Twelve are selected annually for this supposed 
honour, and receive a certain donation from the cardinals as their dower. 



THE POPE. 



9! 



they reverently kissed his foot. A collection was then 
taken up among the cardinals for their benefit, and the 
whole ceremony was thus ended. The pope was again put 
into his chair, and borne on the shoulders of his attend- 
ants to his carriage. The streets were filled with carriages, 
and soldiers, and merry crowds ; the air rung with 
noise and the sound of martial music ; every window 
and balcony was crowded with idle spectators. This is 
the way in which the pope keeps the sabbath ; these 
are the means he takes to save the thousands that 
people his territory. Oh what a religion Pop ery is ! I 
went home sick and sorrowful. I felt as though, in 
being present at such a scene, I had helped to desecrate 
the sabbath. I can never feel thankful enough that I 
was born in a Protestant land. Our countrymen do 
not appreciate the religious privileges they enjoy." 

The services in which the pope is engaged are strongly 
marked with superstition. In addition to proofs already 
given, he consecrates many articles, called Agnus Dei — - 
images of a lamb impressed on virgin wax mixed with 
balsam and oil — as sacred amulets, the first year of his 
pontificate ; and afterwards on every seventh year, on 
the Saturday before Low Sunday, with many ceremo- 
nies and prayers. The following description of these 
charms is from one of the devotional works of the 



92 



THE POPE. 



Papists : — " The spiritual efficacy or virtue of the Agnus 
Dei, is gathered from the prayer that the church makes 
use of in the blessing of it : which is to preserve him 
who carries an Agnus Dei, or any particle of it, about 
him, from any attempts of his spiritual or temporal 
enemies, from the dangers of fire, of water, of storms 
and tempests, of thunder and lightning, and from a 
sudden and unprovided death. It puts the devils to 
flight; succours women, takes away the stains of past 
sins, and furnishes us with new grace for the future, 
that we may be preserved from all adversities and perils, 
in life and death, through the cross and merits of the 
Lamb, who redeemed and washed us in his blood. ; ' Such 
a statement is truly astounding. "What says the Bible? 
That all temporal and spiritual safety and deliverance 
come from God alone. "What says the Romish church ? 
That they are owing to a consecrated piece of wax ! 
"What a combination is here of absurdity and impiety. 

In the services of the last week of Lent, as celebrated 
at Rome, the pope is peculiarly conspicuous. The 
principal function takes place on Palm Sunday, in the 
papal chapel, commonly called the Sistine, and consists 
of the mass. It differs from the service of any other 
Sunday, in the blessing and distributing palm or olive 
branches, as a commemoration of Christ's entrance 



PALM SUNDAY. 



93 



into Jerusalem. A procession is then formed about the 
Sala Regia, in which these branches are borne, a car- 
dinal priest, according to Picart, chaunting the mass. 

The procession begins with the lowest in clerical 
rank, who move off two by two, rising gradually till 
bishops, archbishops, and cardinals appear, and at the 
close of all — for in the Romish church the most dis- 
tinguished always brings up the rear — the pope meets 
the view, borne in his chair of state, on men's shoulders, 
with a crimson canopy over his head. 

" The procession," says an eye-witness, " issued 
forth into the Sala Borgia, (the hall behind the Sistine 
chapel,) and marched round it, forming nearly a circle, 
for by the time the pope had got out, the leaders of the 
procession had nearly got back again ; but they found 
the gates of the chapel closed against them, and an 
admittance being demanded, a voice was heard from 
within, in deep recitation, seemingly inquiring into their 
business, or claims for entrance there. This was an- 
swered by the choristers from the procession, in the 
hall, and after a chaunted parley of a few minutes, the 
gates were again opened, and the pope, cardinals, and 
! priests returned to their seats. Then the passion was 
chaunted, and then a most tiresome long service com- 
menced, in which the usual genuflexions, and tinkling 



94 



PALM SUNDAY. 



of little bells, and'dressings, and undressings, and walk- 
ing up and coining down the steps of the altar, and bust- 
ling about went on, and which terminated at last in the 
cardinals embracing and kissing each other, which is, 
I am told, 1 the kiss of peace.' The palms are artificial, 
plaited of straw, or the leaves of dried reeds, so as to 
resemble the real branches of the palm-tree, when then- 
leaves are plaited, which are used in this manner for 
this ceremony in Roman Catholic colonies in tropical 
climates. These artificial palms, however, are topped 
with some of the real leaves of the palm-tree, brought 
from the shores of the Gulf of Genoa.'' Xeed it be 
asked whether St. Peter or St. Paul were ever thus 
carried in pomp and childish show ? 

On Thursday a singular ceremony takes place, an 
account of which shall be given on the same autho- 
rity : — " It is instituted in commemoration of our 
Saviour's washing the feet of the apostles : but here 
there were thirteen instead of twelve. The odd one is 
the representative of the angel that once came to the 
table of twelve that St. Gregory was serving ; and though 
it is not asserted that the said angel had his feet washed, 
or indeed did any thing but eat, yet as the pope can 
hardly do less for him than the rest, he shares in the 
ablution as well as the repast. 



WASHING OP FEET. 



95 



" The twelve were old priests, but the one who per- 
formed the part of the angel was very young. They 
were all dressed in loose white gowns, with white caps 
on their heads, and clean woollen stockings, and were 
seated in a row along the wall, under a canopy. When 
the pope entered, and took his seat at the top of the 
room, the whole company of them knelt in their places, 
turning towards him ; on his hand being extended in 
benediction, they all rose again and reseated themselves. 

" The splendid garments of the pope were then 
taken off, and clad in a white linen robe, which he had 
on under the others, and wearing the bishop's mitre 
instead of the tiara, he approached the pilgrims, took 
from an attendant a silver bucket of water, knelt before 
the first of them, immersed one foot in the water, put 
water over it with his hand, and touched it with a 
square fringed cloth, kissed the leg, and gave the cloth 
and a sort of white flower, or feather, to the man ; then 
went on to the next. The whole ceremony was over, 
I think, in less than two minutes, so rapidly was this 
act of humility gone through. From thence the pope 
returned to his throne, put on his robes of white and 
silver again, and proceeded to the Sala della Tavola, 
whither we followed, not without extreme difficulty, so 
immense was the crowd. The thirteen priests were now 



96 



WASHING OP FEET. 



seated in a row at the table, which was spread with a 
variety of dishes, and adorned with a profusion of 
flowers. The pope gave the blessing, and walking along 
the side of the table opposite to them, handed each of 
them bread, then plates, and lastly, cups of wine. They 
regularly all rose up to receive what he presented ; and 
the pope having gone through the forms of service, and 
given them his parting benediction, left them to finish 
their dinner in peace. They carry away what they can- 
not eat, and receive a small sum of money besides. " 

Now, what an absurdity is there in this annual cere- 
mony ! When Jesus washed the feet of his disciples, 
he charged them to do to others as he had done to 
them ; but the best obedience would be rendered not 
to the letter, but the spirit of the command. In eastern 
countries persons travelling usually on foot, had to pass 
over dusty spots and scorching sands, having only the 
soles of their feet covered with sandals, which were fast- 
ened with thongs about the ancles. Any one coming from 
a journey, felt, therefore, that the first thing necessary 
for his comfort, was the washing of his feet, and hence 
the performance of this service, or even providing him 
with water, being the first kind action that was required 
bv a friend or a stranger, came, of course, to designate 
all the duties of hospitality and brotherly kindness. 



BROTHERLY KINDNESS. 



97 



Thus Paul mentions the washing of the saints' feet as 
implying a spirit of true benevolence ; in this sense, then, 
and in this only, Christ's example is as binding now as 
it was in the first age of Christianity. The pope has 
therefore no more authority for his practice on this 
occasion, than he has for the use of holy water, for 
being enveloped as he is with clouds of incense, or 
for many other ceremonies of his degenerate church. 

. At the frowns of the pope we need not be alarmed. 
A worm is a miserable object to excite dread ; and yet 
on the Thursday of " holy week," one of the cardinals 
curses all Jews, Turks, and heretics, which latter term 
includes every Protestant, "by bell, book, and candle." 
The little bell is rung, the curse is sung from the book, 
and the lighted tapers thrown down amongst the people. 
A spectator describes this cursing as follows : — 

' ' The clergy and friars being assembled in the cathe- 
dral, and the cross being held up with holy candles of 
wax fixed thereon, one of the priests in white robes, 
ascended the pulpit and preached. The bishop then with 
solemnity pronounced the curse. This form of cursing 
commenced by declaring that it was 6 By the authority 
of God the Father Almighty, of the blessed Virgin Mary, 
of St. Peter and Paul, and of the holy saints ;' the ex- 
communicated is then mentioned ; and it proceeds, ' We 

H 



9"8 THE CURSE OX HERETICS. 

curse and ban, commit and deliver to the devil of hell, 
him or her, whatsoever he or she may be. Excom- 
municated and accursed may they be, and given body 
and soul to the devil. Cursed be they in cities, in 
towns, in fields, in ways, in paths, in houses, out of 
houses, and all other places, standing, lying, or rising, 
walking, running, waking, sleeping, eating, drink- 
ing, and whatsoever things they do besides. We 
separate them from the threshold, and from all prayers 
of the church, from the holy mass, from all sacraments, 
chapels, and altars, from holy bread and holy water, 
from all the merits of God's priests and religious men, 
from all their pardons, privileges, grants, and immu- 
nities, which all the holy fathers, the popes of Rome, 
have granted ; and we give them utterly over to the 
power of the fiend ! And let us quench their soul, if 
they be dead, this night in the pains of hell-fire, as this 
candle is now quenched and put out,' (and then one of 
them is put out,) ' and let us pray to God, that if they 
be alive, their eyes may be put out, as this candle is 
put out,' (another was then extinguished ;) 6 and let us 
pray to God, and to our Lady, and to St. Peter, and St. 
Paul, and all the holy saints, that all the senses of their 
bodies may fail them, and that they may have no feel- 
ing, as now the light of this candle is gone,' (the third 



THE CURSE ON HERETICS. 



99 



was then put out,) ' except they come openly now, and 
confess their blasphemy, and by repentance, as in them 
shall lie, make satisfaction unto God, our Lady, St. 
Peter, and the worshipful company of this cathedral 
church. And as this cross falleth down, so may they, 
except they repent, and show themselves.' " Then the 
cross was allowed to fall down with a loud noise, and 
the superstitious multitude shouted with fear.* 

This miserable and impious farce is soon followed by 
the pope's blessing on all who believe, or profess to 
believe, his own creed. On Easter day he says mass 
at the high altar of St. Peter's, and at its close 
pronounces his blessing on the multitude in the square 
below, many of whom are pilgrims from considerable 
distances. One thing is, however, perfectly clear : he 
curses some who are objects of the Divine favour ; he 
blesses others with whom God is angry every day. In 
each instance he speaks in vain, as it regards them ; but 
in every one there is a record against him of presump- 
tuous sin, in the book of God's remembrance. 

It must now be remarked, that the doctrine held by 

* All those included in this curse are described in a papal bull or decree 
read on this day, entitled " In die Ccenag Domini." It includes all who, by 
themselves or others, under any pretence, occupy, destroy, or detain, any 
thing belonging to the church of Rome, or any of its rights. The offences 
specified in this bull can only be absolved by the pope himself. 

H 2 



100 



THE POPE'S BLESSING. 



Roman Catholics, in reference to the pope, is this : — 
that by the agreement of the fathers and the testimony of 
tradition, the bishops of Rome are Christ's vicars on the 
earth, as the successors of St. Peter, who, they affirm, 
translated his chair from Antioch to Rome, and died 
holding the office of its bishop. Hence, it is said, the 
see of Rome is called, in all ages, the see of St. Peter, 
the chair of St. Peter, and absolutely the see apostolic, 
and has consequently, from the beginning, exercised 
authority over all other churches. Here, however, we 
have assertion instead of fact, and assumption in the 
place of argument. 

It appears from the narrative of the evangelist 
Matthew, that Jesus asked his disciples, saying, " Whom 
do men say that I the Son of man am ? And they 
said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: 
some, Elias ; and others, Jeremias, or one of the pro- 
phets." The question then became particular : pass- 
ing from men in common to his immediate follow- 
ers, Jesus said, "But whom say ye that I am ? And 
Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, 
the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and 
said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona : for 
flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my 
Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, 



THE OFFICE OF PETER. 



101 



That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my 
church ; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against 
it," Matt. xvi. 13 — 18. Here then is a foundation for 
the church of the living God, formed of all true 
believers in our Lord Jesus Christ ; a foundation so 
stable and secure, that no devices or efforts of fallen 
angels or men shall ever subvert it, though they should 
rally for this object their mightiest energies, and expend 
on it their concentrated force. Yea more, death and 
the grave shall be equally impotent. The disciples of 
Christ may fall beneath the stroke of the last enemy, 
but others shall successively arise, and triumphing over 
every adversary, appear as " more than conquerors." 

At this point the Romanist claims the dignity of the 
foundation thus exhibited for the apostle Peter, and 
therefore his supremacy ; an assumption, however, 
which is perfectly unwarrantable. It must be so, even 
on the admission that Christ referred to Peter as the 
basis of his church. For when the apostle Paul was 
addressing the Ephesians, he described both Jews and 
Gentiles as forming one spiritual temple, " built upon 
the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus 
Christ himself being the chief corner stone," Eph. ii. 
20. On him as the centre of union, the cement, and 
support, the whole building " fitly framed together," 



102 



THE OFFICE OF PETER. 



according to the design of the Supreme Architect, 
" groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord, an habitation 
of God through the Spirit." The dignity of the 
foundation, then, so far from belonging exclusively to 
Peter, is here divided among the prophets as well as 
the apostles of our Lord, because in the writings they 
penned, and the truths they announced, they proclaimed 
the testimony by the reception of which the Gentile 
and the Jew alike, became " living stones" of the 
spiritual edifice. Admitting Peter to the rank of the 
foundation, he is so only subordinately to the Redeemer, 
of whom Jehovah says : " Behold, I lay in Zion for a 
foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner 
stone, a sure foundation : he that believeth shall not 
make haste," Isa. xxviii. 16 ; and he is so only in com- 
mon with others, and therefore can claim no superiority 
over any, much less supremacy over all. 

Such, indeed, was clearly the doctrine of the apostle 
himself, given, too, with the utmost explicitness, under 
his own hand. Addressing the believers who were 
scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, 
and Bithynia, he says : Ye also, as lively stones, are 
built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer 
up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ," 
1 Pet. ii. 5. Thus, then, he acknowledges the sure foun- 



THE OiriCE OF PETER. 



103 



dation on which the living stones of the church, of God 
are built, in order to the acceptable offerings of its 
members as a holy priesthood. In connexion with this, 
he adds the very text just quoted from Isaiah : " Where- 
fore also it is contained in the Scripture, Behold, I lay in 
Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious : and he that 
believeth on him," (who is the chief corner stone,) 
" shall not be confounded. Unto you therefore which 
believe he is precious : but unto them which be disobe- 
dient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same 
is made the head of the corner," 1 Peter ii. 5, 6. 

The declaration of Christ, on which Romanists lay 
so much stress, may, however, be regarded in an- 
other point of view ; and here we consider that the 
foundation to which Jesus referred was not Peter, but 
that pointed out by him when he declared the dignity 
of Christ, by saying, " Thou art the Christ, the Son of 
the living God." Thus he asserted, that Jesus was 
the Anointed One ; for the Greek word employed on 
this occasion, answers to the Hebrew word Messiah, 
the name by which the Jews always spake of the pro- 
mised Deliverer ; and also, that Christ sustained a pecu- 
liar relation to Jehovah, whom he, at the same time, 
distinguished from all the idols of the heathen. On the 
fact of Christ's pre-eminence, to which a merely human 



104 



THE OFFICE OF PETER. 



being can never approximate, the efficiency of his me- 
diatorial work is entirely dependent : it is because " God 
was manifest in the flesh " that " he is able to save to 
the uttermost," and that " other foundation can no 
man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." 

A striking confirmation of this view of Christ's de- 
claration appears in a following verse : for does it 
say, " Then charged he his disciples that they should" 
henceforth acknowledge that on Peter the church 
was to rest, as his supremacy was now explicitly and 
determinately settled ? No. But, " that they should tell 
no man that he was Jesus the Christ," because the 
time for the full publication of his Messiahship had not 
arrived. In entire accordance with this, it is added : 
" From that time forth began Jesus to show unto his 
disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and 
suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and 
scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third 
day ;" gradually unfolding, as he did, that amazing and 
glorious doctrine, of which Peter, in a few words, had 
just given the summary. 

As, then, this passage will not avail the Romanist, 
whether Peter or our Lord be considered the founda- 
tion, he will probably direct us to the promise of Christ, 
uttered on the same occasion, as investing the apostle 



THE OFFICE OF PETER. 



105 



Peter with peculiar dignity : "I will give unto thee the 
keys of the kingdom of heaven : and whatsoever thou shalt 
hind on earth shall he hound in heaven : and whatsoever 
thou shalt loose on earth shall he loosed in heaven," 
Matt. xvi. 19. The grant of the keys, which is said now 
to have taken place, is one on which is founded the de- 
claration that there is no salvation out of the church of 
Rome, because here is the authority to open or to close 
the kingdom of heaven — a declaration which is abso- 
lutely false. For to this it may be replied, that the 
power thus claimed belongs exclusively to Christ. "I 
will come again," he said to his disciples, " and receive 
you unto myself ; that where I am, there ye may be 
also," John xiv. 3. He that has " the keys of hell and 
of death" — he that " openeth, and no man shutteth, and 
shutteth, and no man openeth," is not the pope- — he is 
not Peter, but the only and exalted Redeemer. The 
fact is, that by the phrase "the kingdom of heaven," 
which is very frequently employed, that new dispensa- 
tion is intended which Christ came expressly to estab- 
lish, and of which so many illustrations were furnished 
in parables. It is observable, that this grant of the figu- 
rative keys was not immediate, it was afterwards to be 
made ; and this was done when Peter stood forth on 
the day of Pentecost as the herald of mercy to the 



106 



THE OFFICE OF PETER. 



thousands assembled, and when having thus thrown open 
the door of Christ's kingdom to the Jews, he performed 
the same act for the Gentiles in his visit to Cornelius. 
The promise was a prediction that he would be selected 
as the first instrument in the offer of spiritual blessings 
" without money and without price :" at the appointed 
time his trust was discharged, and its repetition is abso- 
lutely impossible. 

That nothing which occurred on this occasion, gave 
supremacy to Peter, is manifest also, from other circum- 
stances. But a short time afterwards, the disciples came 
unto Jesus, saying, " Who is the greatest in the kingdom 
of heaven ?" And was the reply " Peter ? " No : on the 
contrary, Jesus called a little child to him, and set him 
in the midst of them,^ and said unto them, " Verily 
I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become 
as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom 
of heaven," Matt, xviii. 1, 3 : — thus inculcating the 
absolute necessity of true humility to the enjoyment of 
the blessings he came to bestow. Still further, he 
gave the apostles equal power, employing the same 
terms, with the exception that he does not expressly 
use the figure of the keys : " Verily, I say unto you, 
Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in 
heaven : and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall 



THE OFFICE OF PETER. 



107 



be loosed in heaven," Matt, xviii. 18. All had, there- 
fore, in the proclamation of Divine truth, to state the 
obligations which were in full force, and those which 
had become void ; that which it was lawful to do, and 
that which could not be done without sin. 

The supremacy of Peter, it may be confidently 
affirmed, was not acknowledged by his contemporaries. 
Paul was manifestly ignorant of it when he says, that 
he was " not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles," 
2 Cor. xi. 5. As certainly did he not acknowledge 
Peter's superiority when at Antioch ; he " withstood 
him to the face, because he was to be blamed" for 
symbolizing with the Jews, from an unmanly fear of 
certain persons who had come from Jerusalem, Gal. ii. 
11. Equally clear is it, that when the apostles and 
elders were assembled on a memorable occasion in that 
city, he was not in dominion as a sovereign ruler ; 
for though he delivered the first address which is re- 
corded, it is expressly stated that the final decision was 
arrived at by the sentence of the apostle James, and by 
him the prohibitions sent forth were distinctly given, 
Acts xv. 6 — 21. Nor can it be forgotten, that when Peter 
had preached to Cornelius, the brethren at Jerusalem, 
so far from assuming that all must be right, demanded 
an account and a justification of his conduct, Acts xi. 1, 2. 



108 PETER WAS NOT BISHOP OF ROME. 



It will now be evident, that the Scriptures give no 
support to the imagination, that Peter had any authority 
beyond that of the other apostles of our Lord ; it 
therefore only remains to inquire, Whether there is any 
proof that he was bishop of Rome ? It is reported by 
some ancient writers, but who did not live till long 
after his death, and firmly asserted by Papists, that 
he was first bishop of Antioch, and afterwards removed 
to Rome, where he continued for five and twenty years, 
until his martyrdom. It is customary to say at the 
installation of a pope, " Holy Father, thou wilt not 
see the years of Peter ;" and as those who are raised to 
this rank are commonly advanced in life, few pontiffs 
have reigned for so long a period. 

Here, how r ever, it is w r orthy of special remark, that 
the authority given by our Lord to Peter, was that of an 
apostle, not that of a bishop. The indispensable quali- 
fication for this office, was the actual beholding Christ in 
the flesh — a fact which tended to authenticate the tes- 
timony of those called to this dignity, and which clearly 
proves that it could be held for only a certain time. In 
addition to this limitation as to time, there was another 
of a local character ; for while an apostle went hither 
and thither preaching the gospel, as one of the " wit- 
nesses to Christ in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in 



PETER WAS NOT BISHOP OF ROME. 109 

Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth," a 
"bishop had the oversight of some part of the Christian 
church. The former was employed in the first planting 
of the vineyard, the latter in its continued culture, and 
in gathering its full ripe clusters. The one discharged 
the functions of an extraordinary messenger " at the 
beginning of the gospel," the other was employed in 
the ordinary administration of ecclesiastical affairs. To 
argue, therefore, from the apostle to the bishop, betrays 
a want of discrimination, and what is more, of all au- 
thority. 

Equally obvious is it that no satisfactory evidence 
exists that Peter was ever bishop of Rome. The oldest 
writer, who is said to have asserted it, lived a hundred 
years after the death of that apostle. ■ Yet assuredly 
had this office been sustained, we should have found 
some trace of it in the New Testament. It is, however, 
a singular fact, that not a word in reference to it is to be 
had from Peter himself, or from his companions, James, 
Luke, Jude, John, or Paul. The latter wrote an epistle 
to the church at Rome, and from that city he addressed 
others to the churches of Galatia, Ephesus, Philippi, 
and Colosse, to his son Timothy, and to his friend 
Philemon. In some epistles he mentions many persons, 
but Peter, though pretended to have been bishop of 



110 PETER WAS NOT BISHOP OF ROME. 



Rome, is entirely overlooked. In reference to his first 
appearance before Nero, the great apostle of the Gen- 
tiles says, <£ No man stood by me." Are not these 
facts conclusive, then, as to Peter not being resident at 
Rome ? Rome being the seat of government when the 
priesthood began to exercise power, the chief priest of 
Rome naturally claimed pre-eminence, but this was 
several years after Peter ; and when his spirit no longer 
influenced the bishops of that city. 

We may trace the power of popes directly to pagan- 
ism. Every gradation of authority prevailed among 
the priests of antiquity. In Rome, especially, there 
was an ascent from the mere noviciate, to the college 
of pontiffs, and to the Pontifex Maximus. On that 
college it devolved to exercise a general superintend- 
ence over the national worship ; while the title of the 
highest order the pagan emperors were proud to appro- 
priate. Thus the way was made for a college of car- 
dinals, and a sovereign pontiff bearing another name. 



LETTER VI. 



COMPARISON OF POPERY WITH HEATHENISM — ITS CHURCHES — ■ 

ALTARS INCENSE HOLY WATER VOTIVE OFFERINGS — 

DRESSES — CH AUNTS, AND FESTIVALS. 

The ancient Romans had little temples or altars, 
decked with flowers, or whose statues at least, coarsely 
carved with wood or stone, were placed at convenient 
distances in the public ways for travellers, who used to 
step aside to pay their devotions at these rural shrines, 
and entreat a safe and prosperous journey. In Italy 
these altars still appear ; persons may be seen bending 
before them, and none ever presume to pass without 
performing some act of reverence. 

A traveller says : — " As I descended from the Alps, 
I was admonished of my entrance into Italy, by a little 
chapel to the Madonna, built upon a rock by the road 
side, and from that time till I repassed this chain of 
mountains, I received almost hourly proof that I was 



112 



PAGAN RITUAL. 



wandering amongst the descendants of that people 
which is described by Cicero, (but he, be it remembered, 
spake as a pagan,) to have been the most religious of 
mankind. Though the mixture of religion with all the 
common events of life is any thing but an error, yet I 
could not avoid regretting that, like their heathen an- 
cestors, the modern Italians had supplied the place of 
one great Master mover, by a countless host of inferior 
agents. 5 ' 

Other causes of lamentation may also operate. The 
rites and pageantry by which the Greeks and Romans 
attempted to honour their deities, might indeed be 
observed at an earlier period, with slight modifications, 
as parts of the established worship of the church of 
Rome. It was pleaded that they were necessary, to re- 
tain in the profession of Christianity, the half-converted 
multitude, and also to augment their number. " Hence 
it happened," says Mosheim, u that in these times the 
religion of the Greeks and Romans differed very little, 
in its external appearance, from that of the Christians. 
They had both a pompous and most splendid ritual, 
gorgeous robes, mitres, tiaras, wax tapers, crosiers, 
processions, lustrations, images, gold and silver vases ; 
and many such circumstances of pageantry were 
equally to be seen in the heathen temples and the 



THE PAXTHEOX. 



113 



Christian churches. The principal difference was, in 
fact, that instead of referring to the imaginary deities 
hitherto worshipped, their objects were angels, saints, 
and martyrs ; thus the very spirit of heathenism breathed 
in what was called Christianity." 

Popery, indeed, meets the view as a slightly modified 
paganism. Heathen temples, without alteration, be- 
came the scenes of professedly Christian worship. 
Thus, in the ecclesiastical edifices of Rome, the con- 
stituent and essential parts remain the same as they 
were at the period of their erection, which, in the case 
of some few, was in the era of Constantine, and of 
others in that of his sons, or their immediate successors. 
They were, in fact, almost the only objects attended 
to and respected during the long ages of barbarism. 

The finest heathen temple now extant is the Pan- 
theon, or Rotunda, which, as the inscription over the 
portico states, " having been impiously dedicated of 
old by Agrippa, to Jove and all the gods, was piously 
reconsecrated by pope Boniface iv. to the blessed 
Virgin and all the saints." Altered only in this respect, 
it serves as exactly for the popish, as it did aforetime 
for the pagan worship. As, then, every one might dis- 
cover and address himself to the god of his country ; so 
now, each one chooses the patron he prefers, and hence 

i 



114 



HEATHEN TEMPLES. 



different services may be observed going on at the same 
time, at different altars, with distinct congregations 
around them, according to the respective inclinations of 
those assembled. 

Other cases of the kind might easily be given. Thus, 
there was a spot on which it was supposed Romulus 
was suckled by the wolf, and the heathens, having raised 
him to the rank of a god, built him a temple ; and 
hither nurses and mothers were accustomed to resort 
with sickly infants, in the confidence of relief or cure, 
from the notion that he was singularly favourable to 
the safety and health of young children. Xow, this 
piece of heathenism was thought too good to be relin- 
quished when the temple of Romulus was made a 
church. The worship of the founder of Rome was 
merely transferred to St. Theodorus ; and before his 
altar mothers and nurses appear with the same expecta- 
tions. The little temple of Vesta, near the Tyber, is 
now possessed by the Madonna of the sun ; that of 
Fortuna Virilis, by Mary the Egyptian ; that of Saturn, 
by St. Adrian ; and that of Antonine the godly, by Lau- 
rence the saint. And, to mention only one more fact, 
at Rome there were formerly two statues of Jupiter 
Capitolinus, one of stone, the other of bronze. On a 
profession of Christianity succeeding to that of heathen- 



THE ROMISH ALTAR. 



115 



ism, tliey placed a head of St. Peter on the body of the 
former, and gave him new hands, in one of which they 
placed a key : they then melted the latter, (the metal 
statue,) and recast it after the fashion of that of stone. 
Slight, indeed, was the alteration, except in name ; and 
the worship of St. Peter followed that of Jupiter ! 

Every one of the churches and chapels of Popery 
will remind the intelligent spectator of ancient heathens. 
A considerable space where the priest and his attend- 
ants officiate, for instance, is separated from the rest, 
either by its elevation, or a railing of wood, stone, brass, 
or iron, and called the sanctuary. Here stands the 
altar, to which there is an ascent, according to canon 
law, by three steps, and above it is the tabernacle, which 
will be hereafter described. At the sides of it are wax 
candles, inserted in large columns of tin, painted white, 
and forced upwards by means of a spring. The lights 
so freely used in Romish ceremonies remind us of many 
passages in pagan writers, where their perpetual lamps 
and candles are described as continually burning before 
the altars and statues of their deities. The Egyptians 
are said to have first introduced the use of lights or 
lamps in their temples ; and Herodotus mentions an 
annual festival which they celebrated, called, from the 
principal part of the ceremony, " The lighting up of 

i 2 



116 



THE ROMISH ALTAR. 



candles." In the festival of Ceres, a profusion of tapers 
was thought peculiarly acceptable to the goddess ; and it 
was also usual to dedicate to her candles or torches of 
enormous size ; doubtless as emblems of the pines 
she is said to have plucked up and lighted at Etna, 
when she traversed Sicily in search of her daughter 
Proserpine. 

Middleton describes the face of the image of the 
Virgin at Loretto, as being black as a negro's, so that 
it might be rather taken for the representation of an 
infernal deity, than for what it is impiously styled, 
" The queen of heaven." But he soon recollected that 
its complexion likened it more exactly to the idols of 
heathenism, which are said to have been black with the 
perpetual smoke of lamps and incense. 

The relative situation of the image and the altar in 
former times, clearly appears from a painting found at 
Pompeii. It represents a sacrifice to Bacchus, in front 
of whose statue an altar is placed, and that so much 
below him, as that he may receive all the odour, of the 
offering. In incense, the Romish priests are still pro- 
digal. With a tact only to be acquired by practice, 
they throw up the censer repeatedly before the crucifix, 
supplying it from time to time from a vessel borne for 
that purpose by an acolyte, while the cloud ascends 



OFFERING OF INCENSE. 



117 



before the image, as if it were conscious of the offerings 
of its infatuated votaries. 

Trie origin of the ceremony is beyond dispute. But 
when Middleton traced the altars of the Romanists to 
those of the pagans, it is likely that his antagonist, as a 
papist, would prefer deriving them from the altar of in- 
cense in the Jewish temple ; but is it not evident, that 
the Mosaic dispensation was intended as "a shadow 
of good things to come," and that while it lasted, 
Jehovah would not have approved of any other altar ? 
To deny this would be to affirm that offerings made at 
Bethel and at Dan were not idolatrous, and thus to re- 
ject the most explicit testimony of Divine inspiration. 
Besides, as the miter just mentioned says to his oppo- 
nent, "Was there ever a temple in the world not 
strictly heathenish, in which there were several altars 
all smoking with incense within one view, and at one 
and the same time ? It is certain that he must answer 
in the negative ; yet it is equally so that there were such 
temples in pagan Borne, and that there are as many 
still in Christian, that is, professedly Christian Rome. 
And since there never was an example of it but what 
was paganish before the times of Popery, how is it pos- 
sible that it could be derived to them from any other 
source ? Or, when we see so exact a resemblance in the 



118 



HOLY WATER. 



copy, how can there be any donbt about the original ? " 
It is remarkable, that in all the old sculptures of heathen 
sacrifices may be seen a boy, in a habit considered 
sacred, attending the priest, and bearing a small box of 
incense ; just as in the services of the Romish church 
now the priest is accompanied by one, having a similar 
utensil, of which the same use is made. 

We may proceed, then, to another point of resem- 
blance. It is maintained by Romanists, for example, 
that when water, in which a little salt has been mingled, 
is blessed by the priest, it has great efficacy ; and hence 
it is very frequently employed. The visitants of their 
ecclesiastical edifices will not fail to notice a recess 
provided for it at each door ; so that persons on entering 
and returning, may dip a finger in it, and then make 
the sign of the cross, by applying the finger to the 
forehead, the chest, and the right and left shoulders. 
Some curious circumstances in connexion with this 
practice may also be frequently observed. 

A girl of ten or twelve years of age, for instance, may 
perhaps be seen attempting to make the usual sign on a 
little child just beginning to walk, who tries to avoid 
every touch, while she is still more anxious that there 
should be no failure. Or, three or four women may 
reach the font together, when one will dip in her hand, 



HOLY WATER. 



119 



and then hastily touch the hands of the rest, by which 
the -wished- for object appears to them to be gained. 
Or, there may be a display of ingenuity like the follow- 
ing which fell under my observation, and which, however 
strange it may seem to those who have not crossed the 
Channel, may often be witnessed by those who have. 

The continental towns, it may be remarked, contain 
ordinarily some large schools, for gratuitous instruction ; 
those for girls being under the care of some order of 
nuns, while those for boys are conducted by monks, or, 
as they are styled, " Christian Brothers." All of these, 
amounting to some hundreds, attend, of course, the 
services of the Romish church, and, as it might be ex- 
pected, that the application of holy water to each one of 
these as they pass the font to kneel before the high 
altar, would occupy a considerable time ; a more 
summary process is adopted. A child may be ob- 
served walking at the head of its school, (which in 
long procession advances to the church,) provided with 
a brush, the shape of which, however, seems not to be 
material. On this one it devolves to enter the edifice 
first, to dip the brush in the holy water, and then to 
hold it up ; and thus, as the one I observed was round, 
like that used for cleaning bottles, many points were 
presented, and several children could touch it at the 



120 



HOLY WATER. 



same moment. After all, as in the case of other forms, 
the practice has greatly degenerated, and the merest 
attempt is often deemed sufficient. 

Now, so notoriously was this application of water the 
practice of heathens, that Lacerda, the Jesuit, does not 
hesitate to avow it when he says, " Hence was derived 
the custom of our holy church to provide purifying or 
holy water at the entrance of the churches." The fact 
is, that as the Pagan temple became, in many instances, 
the scene of nominally Christian worship, those who 
engaged in it appropriated many things belonging to 
idolaters. Thus while within was found all the fur- 
niture of an edifice previously devoted to the worship 
of idols, the vessel of water in which salt was infused, 
as it is to the present day, remained at the door. 

The sprinkling of water by means of a brush at the 
commencement of celebrating mass, was another part of 
heathen observances. The form of the sprinkling 
brush, which is much the same as that now used by 
priests, may be seen in ancient coins and bas-reliefs, 
wherever the emblems of a pagan priesthood appear. 
One use of this instrument is too remarkable to be 
overlooked. There is a yearly festival at Rome 
especially devoted to the blessing or purifying of horses, 
asses, and other animals ; and on the appointed day in 



st. Anthony's day. 



121 



the month of January, the inhabitants of the city and 
neighbourhood send theirs, decked with ribands, to 
the convent of St. Anthony, near the church of St. 
Mary the Great, to pass through this ceremony. At 
the church door the priest appears, and rath his brush 
sprinkles each animal as it is presented to him, whether 
a horse, mule, ass, ox, cow, sheep, goat, or dog, dipping 
his brush from time to time in a huge bucket of holy 
water that stands near, taking off his skull-cap, and 
muttering in Latin that these animals are freed from 
evil through the intercession of the blessed St. Anthony, 
in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
Holy Ghost ! 

One party, at least, derives advantage from the 
ceremony ; for the rider or driver of the animal always 
gives some piece of money, larger or smaller according 
to his means, and receives an engraving of St. Anthony 
and a little metallic cross. ^Veil-dressed people, in 
very handsome equipages, attended by outriders in 
splendid liveries, may also be noticed driving up and 
sitting uncovered, till the blessing, as it is called, is 
given. Then, having contributed according to their 
pleasure, they drive off, and make way for others. 

One traveller observed on this occasion a countryman, 
whose beast having received the holy water, set off 



122 



THE EYE OF ST. ODILIA. 



from the church.- do or at a gallop, but had scarcely gone 
a hundred yards before the ungainly animal tumbled 
down with him, and over its head he rolled in the dust. 
He soon however arose, and so did the horse, without 
either seeming to have sustained much injury. The 
priest looked on, and though his blessing had failed, 
he was not out of countenance ; while some of the 
by-standers said that but for it, the horse and his rider 
might have broken their necks. 

Some friends of mine witnessed another application of 
water accounted holy, during a transient visit to Liege 
not long since. The whole district of the city in which 
was the church of St. Jacques, appeared in motion ; num- 
bers were flocking thither from all quarters ; even infants 
were taken in their cots, and three generations might be 
seen in company. As the strangers approached the 
church many were leaving it, yet the edifice was full. 
About fifty persons at a time knelt at the rails of an 
altar, before which stood a priest, who hastily touched 
the eyes of each one with " the eye of St. Odilia," 
inclosed under glass in a gold case. This relic was 
attached to his finger ; it was wiped after each applica- 
tion with a cloth, and was held to every person to kiss. 
The object would not easily be guessed : the ostensible 
one is, that diseased eyes may be cured, and sound 



THE EYE OF ST. ODILIA. 123 

ones preserved, an advantage confined to one day in the 
year — the festival of the saint. The real object is, 
doubtless, associated with the money-box, borne by the 
attendant acolyte 3 into which each one puts a coin. 
Others were employed at the west end of the church 
in bringing buckets of water from the ground-floor of 
the tower, and selling it in tumblers and bottles. A 
woman, on being asked what this meant, replied, that it 
was some of " the blessed water of St. Odilia, which 
was good for the eyes, and also for the purification of 
the stomach !" 

To employ the language of the Rev. Dr. O'Croly, 
once a Romanist : " What a multitude of odd ceremo- 
nies is connected with the use of holy water ! It is as- 
tonishing what virtue is ascribed to this consecrated 
element ! Nothing can be blessed or hallowed with- 
out it ; neither candles, nor new fruits, nor new-laid 
eggs, nor ships, nor dwelling-houses, nor churches, nor 
bells, nor sacerdotal vestments. It is used in all the 
sacraments, before mass and after mass, and at the 
churching of women. Nothing, in short, can be done 
without holy water. Even the butter- churn is sprinkled 
with it before the churning commences, that the cream 
may work the better. It purines the air, heals dis- 
tempers, cleanses the soul, expels Satan and his imps 



124 



VOTIVE OFFERINGS. 



from haunted houses, and introduces the Holy Ghost 
as an inmate in their stead. It is generally believed 
that the holy water blessed at Easter and Christmas 
possesses superior virtue ; on which account, several 
tubs or barrels full must be blessed on these occasions, 
in order to supply the increased demand." What a 
combination is here of ignorance, superstition, and blas- 
phemy ! 

In the churches of the continent, the traveller may 
frequently observe, at the altar of the Virgin, many 
small waxen models of arms, legs, teeth, and other 
parts of the body, which had been hung up as offerings 
in her honour, for cures supposed to have been received 
through her agency. And here, as clearly as in the cases 
already mentioned, is a relic of former days. After re- 
ferring to the practice of the ancients, Polydore Virgil 
says : — " In the same manner do we now offer up in 
our churches little images of wax, and as oft as any 
part of the body is hurt, as the hand or foot, we pre- 
sently make a vow to God, or one of his saints, to whom, 
on our recovery, we make an offering of that foot or 
hand in wax. Which custom is now come to that ex- 
travagance, that we do the same thing for our cat the 
which we do for ourselves, and make offering for our 
oxen, horses, sheep ; where a scrupulous man will 



ROMISH CHAUNTS. 



125 



question whether in this we imitate the religion or 
superstition of our ancestors." 

The sanctuary of a Romish church already referred to, 
is generally surrounded by windows adorned with stained 
glass, on which are representations of the Saviour, the 
Virgin Mary, saints, and angels, with various devices. 
Sometimes other paintings are seen through open work 
in front of the altar, and around the walls of the edifice 
paintings and statues are generally placed. It is usual 
to represent the heads of the persons thus exhibited as 
surrounded with glory, and this formerly encircled the 
statues of heathen gods. Thus the halo of light which 
was given to Apollo, or Fortuna, or Pallas, is transferred 
to Peter, or Paul, or Francis ; and the Virgin, just 
like Diana of old, is often represented with the crescent, 
the emblem of chastity. 

To relieve the transition from song to ordinary read- 
ing, and also to assist the common tone of voice in large 
churches, the ancients introduced a few modulations 
into the prayers and lectures. These, which raised and 
sustained the voice, extended its reach, and softened its 
cadences, were taken from the different species of Roman 
declamations, and still vary in number and solemnity 
according to the importance and nature of the lecture. 
Pope Gregory the Great collected the chaunt or music 



126 



GARMENTS OF ROMANISTS. 



used by the Papal choir into a body, and gave it the form 
in which it now appears. In the lessons and epistles, the 
interrogations, exclamations and periods only, are marked 
by a corresponding rise or fall: the gospel has its 
variations more numerous and dignified : and the opening 
of the mass is borrowed, it is supposed, from the stately 
accents of Roman tragedy. The chaunt of the Psalms 
is composed of Lydian, Phrygian, and other Greek and 
Roman tunes, without many notes, but with a sufficient 
inflection to render them either soft and plaintive, or bold 
and animating. 

In the sacristy of the chapel of an English monastery, 
and of all others of the Romish church, there is a great 
variety of garments. Among the vestments here 
arranged, are amices, each one being a square of fine 
cambric cloth, to be thrown over the shoulders, and 
made to hide the waistcoat and other upper garments ; 
— albs, long white dresses of fine Irish cloth or calico, 
somewhat in the form of a shirt, tied at the top, 
reaching down to the feet, and ornamented with net- 
work or lace ; — girdles of fine cord, with tassels to be 
bound on the alb and around the waist ; — stoles, of silk 
or velvet, or gold or silver tissue, worn on the shoulders 
of a priest, and crossed in front, but worn by a deacon 
on one shoulder, and hanging by the side ; — maniples, of 



GARMENTS OF ROMANISTS. 



127 



the same material, worn on the arm ; — chasib.ules, the 
upper vestments of priests, made of silk or velvet, or 
gold or .silver tissue, often richly embossed and adorned 
with precious stones ; — dalmatics resembling in form the 
chasibule of the priest, except in having wings on the 
shoulders formed of the same materials as that part of 
his attire ; these are the upper garments of the deacon 
when assisting in the celebration of mass ; — tuncis, the 
same in shape, size, and quality, as the dalmatics worn 
by the sub-deacon ; — veils, or broad and long scarfs worn 
across the shoulders when assisting in high mass, and 
serving to hide the paten in the early part of its 
celebration ; — copes, which are large, rich, and highly 
ornamented vestments, somewhat in the form of a 
travelling cloak, and intended to cover the whole of the 
other vestments, but only at certain services ; — surplices, 
worn by priests and deacons when they preach or 
expound ; by acolytes, or clerks, by the thurifer, or 
incense-bearer, and also by those engaged in carrying 
torches ; — palls, to cover the chalice when the wine is 
consecrated ; — corporals, to spread on the altar-cloth to 
catch any particles of the broken wafer, or drops of the 
spilt wine, to be touched by those only who have 
received sub-deacon's orders, and those of higher rank ; 
— and munditories, of fine linen, employed to cleanse 
the chalice, the use of which is equally limited. 



128 



GARMENTS OF ROMANISTS. 



"White vestments, or those of gold or silver, always 
regarded as white, are used in all the feasts of the 
Virgin ; on such feasts as Easter, Pentecost, and 
Corpus Chris ti, and on all feasts of virgins that were 
not martyrs ; red vestments are worn on all feasts of 
apostles and martyrs ; green on most sabbaths from 
Pentecost to Advent ; purple on penitential occasions, 
as the weeks of that season and of Lent ; and black on 
Good Friday, and in offices for the dead. All persons 
engaged at these times wear robes or garments of the 
same colour. 

In the superstition that prevails, many of these vest- 
ments are considered as having some mystic significa- 
tion. The amice is put over the shoulders of the 
priest, arid is called by St. Bonaventure, with the 
Greeks, hummeale, & covering for the shoulders. The 
name amice is from the Latin word amictus, or covered. 
Being clean and white, it signifies, according to Rebanus, 
the purity and cleanness of heart with which the priest 
ought to go to the holy altar, and represents the linen 
with which the Jews blindfolded our Saviour, saying in 
derision, ' ' Prophesy unto us, O Christ! who is it that 
smote thee ? " The albe, or alba, which signifies white, 
or whiteness, denotes, it is said, chastity, and is a me- 
mento to the priest of the unspotted purity of life and 
manners with which he ought to be adorned. Other 



GARMENTS OF ROMANISTS. 



129 



parts of the dress are considered equally emblematical. 
Thus Romanists say the girdle represents the cords 
with which Christ was hound when seized by the Jews, 
and signifies the cords of love and duty with which all, 
especially priests, ought to be close bound to the ser- 
vice Gf God. The mantle represents also the cords in 
the binding of the Saviour. Before the priest puts it on 
his left arm, he kisses the cross which is in the middle 
of it, as offering himself to attend the Saviour in his 
passion, with a desire to suffer with him. What shall 
be said of such a dress, when appearing to plead 
solemnly with the Most High for a sinful people ? It 
would be more suitable and in place at a masquerade 
or fancy ball ! In fact, the ordinary costume of the 
Romish priesthood is pagan. In all heathen rites, 
white was considered as having a favourable influence 
on the gods ; and the prayer of a suppliant so clothed 
was held to have a powerful claim on the bounty of 
Heaven. In the chamber of the Young Apollo in the 
Vatican, is a bas-relief, representing a priest of I sis. A 
cowl covers the back of his head, which is shaven in 
front, and a loose cloak descends to his knees. The 
materials, however, are not the same : the dress of the 
priests has always been of linen, that of monks of wool. 
Even the tonsure, the cutting off a portion of the hair 

K 



130 



GARMENTS OF ROMANISTS. 



from the crown of the head, considered by Romanists a 
special distinction of the priesthood, is of heathen origin. 
" It is clear," says Jerome, " that we ought not to be 
seen with our heads shaven, like the priests and wor- 
shippers of Isis and Ser apis." And yet now they glory 
in their shame ! 

The stola, called originally orarium, or sudarium, was 
a long stripe of linen, worn round the neck by persons 
of distinction, and particularly magistrates or public 
speakers. It was intended, as its primitive name im- 
ports, for the same purpose as a handkerchief. The 
manipular, or mappula, was a handkerchief to replace 
the stola, when the latter, in process of time, had be- 
come merely an ornament. The upper vestment, some- 
times called cassibulum, or planeta, was originally a 
garment of a circular form, with an opening in the 
centre for the head, so that when put on, it hung down 
to the ground on all sides, and entirely covered the body. 
It is only used in the mass ; and on other occasions the 
bishop or priest who presides, wears the cope, the 
ancient toga. 

But without entering into further detail, it may 
be remarked, that the doorways of all the Italian 
churches are closed with a heavy curtain, exactly like 
those of ancient temples. Attention to the services 



INATTENTION IN DIVINE WORSHIP. 131 

which take place in such edifices is not usually very 
profound. The entrance of a stranger into a church in 
Spain during mass is said always to create a sensation : 
a hundred eyes may at any time be withdrawn from the 
contemplation either of a preacher or an image, by the 
slightest possible cause. Mr. Latrobe says of the city of 
Mexico : " The trample of thousands of feet, the march 
of stately and interminable processions, and the hum 
and clamour of innumerable voices filled the ear ; both 
in the ordinary tones of conversation, and exerted to the 
utmost pitch." To this, however, he adds, " You may 
further understand that the interior of the churches were 
no more the theatre of silence than the streets without, 
when I tell you, that, in addition to the incessant stream 
of worshippers which poured along their pavement from 
one door to another the livelong day- — in many of them, 
waltzes, boleros, and polonaises, from harpsichord or 
organ, were the accompaniment of the hasty devotion of 
the passing multitudes." 

Referring to the resemblance between Popery and hea- 
thenism, a gentleman who visited Italy in 1825, says: 
" This idea struck me most forcibly, on going to see a 
festa which is held at a little village at the foot of Mount 
Vesuvius. It is the feast of the Madonna del Arco — a 
madonna (or image of the Virgin) celebrated throughout 
K 2 



132 



FEAST OF THE VIRGIN. 



the kingdom of Naples for the miracles she is said to 
have performed ; in memory of which miracles the 
church is filled with representations in painting, wood, 
or in wax, of all accidents and deformities that can dis- 
figure the human frame ; all of which, they say, have 
been cured by the miraculous power of this wonderful 
Virgin. In the intervals of the masses that are said by 
the priests, the people go down on their knees, and 
placing their tongues on the floor proceed in this atti- 
tude from the church -do or to the altar, licking the dust 
all the way. By the time they are arrived before the 
Virgin, they are completely exhausted. They remain, 
however, on their knees, (their tongues and their noses 
blackened with filth,) till they have got through a cer- 
tain number of prayers, and then leave the church with 
the full assurance of having obtained the favour of the 
madonna, and having obtained indulgence from many 
years of purgatory. 

"Their throats are then cleansed in the village with 
abundant libations of wine, their heads are decorated 
with oak-leaves, and bunches of peeled nuts, that are 
made to hang like grapes about their hair, they are 
placed upon donkeys, and carried home to Naples, sing- 
ing drunken songs in praise of Madonna del Arco, who 
heals all diseases, redresses all wrongs, and fulfils to the 



REFUGE FOR CRIMINALS. 



133 



utmost the desires of all her votaries. Such a mixture 
of filth and piety, drunkenness and devotion, must have 
had its origin in the ancient Bacchanalian orgies, of 
which it is a most lively and animated illustration." 
What, then, is Popery ? It is not Christianity — it is 
paganism under another name ! 

There is only one more fact of the same kind to 
which allusion shall now be made. As the cities of 
Greece opened an asylum for fugitives from all other 
nations, Romulus followed their example, and this has 
been imitated by the church of Rome. Should it, how- 
ever, be supposed that a precedent for this practice is 
found in the building of cities of refuge under the law, 
it may be remarked, that Jehovah was, in a sense alto- 
gether peculiar, the King of the Jewish people ; that the 
former dispensation is ended ; and that no such arrange- 
ment is made under the Christian economy. And 
that the establishment of the city of refuge was only to 
protect the person who had undesignedly caused the 
death of another, from the rash and hasty vengeance of 
the next of kin. The deliberate murderer was not 
sheltered, but sent without delay to trial and punish- 
ment. On the contrary, the popish sanctuary is a place 
of refuge for criminals of the blackest die, and those 
guilty of every sort of crime; the murderer and the. 



134 



REFUGE FOR CRIMINALS. 



robber are there protected from justice, nay, sheltered 
even from inquiry into their crimes. 

The Romish church, as in other cases, has improved 
in the present instance on the practice of heathens. 
The old republic had but one asylum, but in the single 
city of Rome there were hundreds ; and when the 
sanctuary of ancient Rome was proved to be fruitful in 
evil, it was enclosed, and all access prevented ; but the 
refuges of Popery stand constantly open to shelter 
criminals. In Italy assassination has long been com- 
mon; and one cause of its frequency appears in the 
defence thus offered by its churches. On the crimi- 
nality of thus affording a stimulus to such evils, by 
shielding its perpetrators, it is unnecessary to expatiate. 
Is it not expressly contradicting the declaration of 
Scripture, " Thou shalt not kill ? " Exod. xx. 13. 



LETTER VII. 



THE DOCTRINE OF VENIAL AND MORTAL SIN — CONFESSION — DIS- 
PENSATIONS — PENANCE — PILGRIMAGES — RELICS — THEIR TRUE 
CHARACTER. 

The Romish church divides the sins of its members 
into two classes — the venial, and the mortal ; those 
which are " very pardonable," and those which are not 
forgiven. Now, it is obvious, that all offences against 
God are not of equal turpitude. The man who takes 
away the life of another is manifestly chargeable with 
greater guilt than he who is convicted only of fraud ; 
and as responsibility is proportionate to privilege, so a 
murderer in a land like ours, sins more against light and 
knowledge, than the savage who imbrues his hands in 
his brother's blood. Still it may be affirmed, that with 
this acknowledged gradation in guilt, the Scriptures 
know nothing of the distinction made by the church of 
Rome. 

An act in itself inconsiderable, be it observed, may 



136 



THE DOCTRINE 01 VENIAL 



furnish a clear indication of the existing state of feeling. 
As the motion of a leaf or a feather shows the direction 
of the wind as certainly as the waving branches of an 
oak, or the swelling sails of the mariner, so there are 
stern looks and cold words which manifest sinful anger, 
as fully as if that feeling vented itself in rancorous 
abuse, or in deeds of violence. Just so, when Miriam 
murmured against her brother, when Lot's wife looked 
back on Sodom, and when E ve stretched forth her hand, 
and took of the fruit of the forbidden tree, there was in 
each of these acts a full demonstration of that carnality 
of mind which is enmity against God. For what says 
our Lord ? " He that is unjust in the least is unjust 
also in much," Luke xvi. 10. According to this rule, 
sin is not so much a matter of product, as of principle ; 
it is to be estimated rather according to the disposition 
than the results of its exercise. But theft, according 
to the Romish church, is only a mortal sin when the 
thing stolen is of considerable value ; yet no extenu- 
ation is allowed by the Scripture cf what men call 
"little sins." The flaming sword of God's law is 
placed at the very point where the right and the wrong 
separate. A broad line of demarcation intervenes be- 
tween what we may do, and what we may not do ; and 
we pass through at our peril. Christ addresses the 



AND MORTAL SIN. 



137 



man who lias only just planted his foot on the forbidden 
ground, in the same terms as him who has advanced to 
its utmost limit, because he ought not to be there at 
all : principle was surrendered in passing the barrier, 
and when this was gone, the security against any further 
trespass, however great, was removed. 

Accordingly the apostle James says, "Whosoever shall 
keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is 
guilty of all," Jas. ii. 10 ; and he does so, because he who 
transgresses any one command acts in direct opposition 
to the principle of all true obedience, and discovers, by 
so doing, a state of feeling which would lead to the 
violation of any or every command, were temptation 
presented, and opportunity afforded. He transgresses 
the whole law in disposition, if not in act. Though he 
does not violate it in every instance, the restraint arises 
from an inferior and base motive, and not from a sense 
of Divine authority : a due regard to which would have 
effectually prevented the first offence. 

Every sin is inimical to the character and government 
of God. It strikes at Jehovah as much as if it neither 
wronged the soul of the transgressor, nor, to the injury 
of his neighbour, destroyed much good. The confes- 
sion of David is suited to every sinner : " Against thee, 
Lord, against thee only, have I sinned, and done this 



138 



CONFESSION. 



evil in thy sight." For sin — every species and degree 
of sin — is enmity against God, against his attributes, his 
dispensations, his purposes. Sin vilifies the Divine 
wisdom, hates the Divine holiness, abuses the Divine 
goodness, denies the Divine justice, insults the Divine 
omniscience, trifles with the Divine mercy, dares the 
Divine power, and, were it possible, would depose the 
Creator, Upholder, and Ruler of all things, from the 
throne of the universe. 

Can we wonder, then, at the declaration, that "the 
wages of sin," not of mortal sin, as the Romanists, by an 
unwarrantable assumption, would make it — but, "'the 
wages of sin is death? " Rom. vi, 23. Again, we may 
read, " The soul that sinneth, it shall die," Ezek. 
xviii. 4, and " Cursed is every one that continueth not 
in all things which are written in the book of the law 
to do them," Gal. iii. 10. And thus, while some speak 
of venial sins, be it ours to remember that none are so, 
but that every sin, however estimated by men, renders 
the transgressor justly liable to eternal punishment. 

Another topic for consideration is that of confession. 
The structure called a " confessional," cannot fail to at- 
tract the notice of the visitants of the Romish conti- 
nental churches. It is a sort of lofty closet, opening 
in front by a latticed door having a curtain inside, in 



THE CONFESSIONAL. 



139 



which a priest may take his seat, with a wing on either 
side, in which a person, kneeling on a step, may whisper 
through a wooden grating into his ear whatever he may 
intend to confess. Such closets are commonly ranged 
along the sides of the Popish churches, and frequently 
bear on them the names of the confessors to whom they 
are appropriated. In St. Peter's, at Rome, there are 
confessionals for every living language. Spaniards and 
Portuguese, French and English, Germans and Dutch, 
Hungarians and Swedes, Greeks and Armenians, all 
find priests ready to listen to their tale of sin. 

I shall not easily forget the first time of seeing a 
confessional in use. As the shades of a summer's 
evening were deepening, the sounds of the organ 
induced me to enter a church in France, dedicated to 
St. Joseph ; but in a few minutes vespers were ended, 
and immediately after I observed one of the priests 
who had officiated, unlock the door, and enter his 
confessional. The two wings were instantly occupied ; 
one by a female wearing a thick black veil, the other by 
a person of the opposite sex ; but it is most usual for 
only one person at a time to approach the confessional. 

According to the requirement of the Romish church, 
the person confessing says, " In the name of the 
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Amen ; 



140 



THE CONFESSIONAL 



pray, father, give me your blessing;" at the same time 
making the sign of the cross, in the usual way, by 
touching with the forefinger of the right hand, the 
forehead, the breast, and the right and left shoulders. 
The person confessing then proceeds, " I confess to 
Almighty God, to the blessed Mary, ever virgin, to 
blessed Michael the archangel, to blessed John the 
Baptist, to the holy apostles Peter and Paul, and to 
all the saints, that I have sinned exceedingly in thought, 
word, and deed, through my fault, my grievous fault ;" 
here he or she smites repeatedly on the breast. The 
personal confession, mentioning the particulars of the 
sins by which the conscience is burdened, then fol- 
lows : " For these, and all other of my sins, which I 
cannot now call to mind, I feel heartily sorry, and 
humbly beg pardon of Almighty God, and penance 
and absolution of you, my ghostly father ; and therefore 
I beseech the blessed Mary, ever virgin, the blessed 
Michael the archangel, the blessed John the Baptist, 
the holy apostles Peter and Paul, and all the saints, 
to pray to the Lord our God for me." 

A considerable time elapsed before the female referred 
to returned from the confessional to one of the chairs 
of the church — the churches of the continent not being 
pewed, but provided with chairs, which serve either for 



NOT SANCTIONED BY SCRIPTURE. 141 

sitting or kneeling — where she recited some prayers, 
probably by the direction of her s< ghostly father." 
Shortly after, the occupant of the opposite niche of the 
confessional rose from his knees ; and in a few seconds, 
the priest having issued from his closet, proceeded to 
the steps of the altar, where I overheard him repeat a 
Latin prayer, at the close of which he left the church. 

The Romish church allows of no exception to the 
practice of confession ; from the humblest of its 
members to the pope himself, all are considered as laid 
under solemn obligation to its observance. Yet to this 
service there are most serious and weighty objections. 
The works designed to assist those who are about to 
confess, are far more likely to promote the pollution of 
the mind than its purity. Such, too, is notoriously the 
effect of the questions of confessors, and many well- 
authenticated facts show, that by these services offences 
were first suggested. 

It is therefore needless to say, that the w r ord of 
God does not sanction such a practice, were not the 
contrary boldly asserted. But when Romanists quote 
the charge of the apostle James, " Confess your faults 
one to another," Jas. v. 6, or the declaration of St. 
John, that " if we confess our sins, God is faithful and 
just to forgive us our sins," 1 John i. 9, it may be 
replied, that the former passage refers exclusively to a 



142 EVIL EFFECTS OF THE CONFESSIONAL. 

mutual duty, and the latter to that of the penitent 
sinner towards Him who is "ready to pardon." To 
the priest, and still less to the power of absolving or 
forgiving sin, which he claims by virtue of his office, 
there is not the slightest possible allusion. Nowhere in 
the Scriptures 'do we find any description of authority 
to receive confession, or a solitary instance of its asser- 
tion or exercise. 

As might naturally be expected, it becomes the 
parent of many evils. The effect of confession in 
early life is to repress the native ardour of the mind, 
to check the feelings which might be lawfully indulged, 
and to call forth many scruples as to things which are 
indifferent and trivial. One individual, reclaimed from 
the errors of the Romish church, states, that a draught 
of milk taken on the morning of Ash Wednesday, 
occasioned him much distress, and that this mere in- 
advertence formed the burden of his next confession. 
Idle words and ceremonial omissions commonly make 
up the amount of such youthful acknowledgments, 
while the hardened sinner conceals his real guilt, if he 
is at heart an infidel ; or, if he is enthralled by a super- 
stitious belief in the power of the priest, he tells all, 
and gathers encouragement to repeat his crime by the 
certainty of absolution and of security. 

One who has described his release from the bondage 



EVIL EFFECTS OF THE CONFESSIONAL. 143 

of the Romish church, mentions his visit to a confes- 
sional. He bowed at the knee of the confessor to 
whom he repaired, but he was harshly ordered to kneel 
at a chair, and here he related his catalogue of sins, 
in his view chiefly venial, but in which there appeared 
occasionally one that was mortal. At the close of it, 
after another display of caprice on the part of the 
priest, he was enjoined to abstain from breakfast every 
morning until his next visit. 

Not thinking that the prohibition extended to the 
morning of Christmas day, which was just at hand, he 
partook on that occasion of food ; but on the confessor 
discovering the fact, he declared, with great indignation, 
that he would have no more to do with one who dared 
to trifle with his commands. In vain were the apo- 
logies, entreaties, and promises of the applicant ; the 
ecclesiastic ' spurned him from his feet, and left him 
alone in despair. As he sauntered down the avenue, 
he thus expressed his poignant feelings : " Alas ! what 
now shall I do ? I have hitherto experienced from the 
priest only kindness and parental tenderness ; but I am 
now cast off without mercy from the tribunal of the 
Holy Ghost. There is no space for repentance. 
All refuge is closed against me, and even hope is 
extinguished. I am an outcast, an alien, a wretch 



144 EVIL EFFECTS OF THE CONFESSIONAL. 

devoted to destruction by the plenipotentiary of 
God." 

Struggling with various emotions, he shortly after 
proceeded to the parish priest, and telling him all that 
had happened, received the consolatory reply, " Do not 
mind it, my child ; kneel down, and I will hear you 
myself." Absolution followed, with the imposition of 
a merely nominal penance. Still the individual was 
left in great difficulty. He had seen painted on the 
confessional in the parish chapel, " Whose sins ye 
remit, they are remitted them ; and whose sins ye retain, 
they are retained ;" and yet believing this, here was 
one priest binding sin on his soul, and absolutely 
refusing its remission, and another, assuming equal and 
infallible authority, promptly and cheerfully uttering 
the words of forgiveness. No wonder then that his 
mind was troubled. 

Another convert from Romanism tells us, that the 
effects of confession on young minds are, generally, 
unfavourable to their future peace and virtue. His 
fancy had been strongly impressed by the representa- 
tions made to him, and he had shuddered on being told 
that the act of concealing any thought or action, the 
rightfulness of which he suspected, would incur the 
guilt of sacrilege, and greatly increase his danger of 



EVIL EFFECTS OF THE CONFESSIONAL. 145 



everlasting torments. But though his fears were thus 
aroused, he was unable to overcome a childish bashful- 
ness, which made the disclosure of a harmless trifle, an 
effort above his strength. 

The appointed day came at last, when he was to wait 
on the confessor. Now wavering, now determined, not 
to be guilty of sacrilege, he knelt before the priest, 
leaving, however, in his list of sins, the last place to 
the hideous offence. But when he came to it — he calls 
it a petty larceny on a young bird — shame and confusion 
fell on him, and the accusation stuck in his throat. 
The imaginary guilt of this silence haunted his mind 
for four years, gathering horrors at every after confession, 
and rising into an appalling spectre, when at the age of 

I twelve he was taken to receive the sacrament. In this 
miserable state he continued, till at the age of fourteen 
he summoned up sufficient courage to unburden his 
conscience by a general confession of the past. Nor is 
| this a solitary case. That individual became afterwards 
a priest, and he affirms that few among the many peni- 
tents he examined, have escaped the evils of a similar 
state. 

A strange confounding of things that differ is con- 
stantly discoverable ; the atom is magnified to a moun- 
tain, while the mountain is reduced to an atom. I was 

L 



146 



DISPENSATIONS. 



lately reading of a servant in Ireland, who thought 
nothing of dancing on the Lord's day, but refused one 
Friday, on the score of conscience, to eat fish which 
had been dressed with beef dripping ! And this is 
a common sentiment. Romanists hold that to eat 
meat on a fast day would be a serious offence, but that 
a visit to a ball or a theatre is perfectly lawful on the 
evening of the sabbath ! Thus they " put light for 
darkness, and darkness for light," 

Another fact may also be mentioned. A friend of 
mine, when recently visiting Bruges, had much conver- 
sation with the laquais-de-place, whom he employed 
to show him the objects of interest in the city and 
neighbourhood. He found that this man was pursuing 
a very profligate course ; when the following dialogue 
took place : — " Are you a Roman Catholic ?" " Yes, 
certainly I am." " Do youthen ever go to confession ?" 
" Oh, yes." " But you do not confess to the priest what 
you have acknowledged to me." " To be sure I do ; 
how else could I get absolution?" " I should suppose 
you could not obtain it a second time." " Oh, yes, I 
always do ; for there are several hundred priests in 
this city and neighbourhood, and I never confess to 
the same priest twice." 

It is unnecessary further to multiply such instances. 



DISPENSATIONS. 



Confession, a fruitful parent of evil, emboldens 
many to repeat their crimes, believing that they are 
sure of pardon. Dispensations are also of common 
occurrence. 

In the elegant cathedral of Namur a money-box 
may be observed set apart for its benefit, and which an 
inscription on it describes to be for the reception of the 
offerings of those who eat meat in Lent. And what 
said Claude D'Espence, a celebrated Parisian divine 
of the Romish church ? " Provided money can be 

, extorted^ every thing prohibited is permitted. There 
is almost nothing forbidden that is not dispensed with 
for money ; so that, as Horace said of his age, the 
greatest crime that a man can commit is to be poor. 
There are some crimes which persons may have liberty 
to commit for money ; while absolution from all of them, 
after they have been committed, may be bought." 

The most flagrant form in which this act of dispen- 
sation appears, is when it sets aside promises and oaths. 
Some high authorities among Papists countenance the 
casuistry, that it is lawful to say one thing and think 
another, even when upon oath, if it were considered to 

| subserve an important purpose. Thus Pascal has 
quoted a saying of the Jesuits : " One may swear that 

j he has not done a thing, although, in fact, he may have 
l 2 



148 



PENANCE. 



done it, by understanding, in his own mind, that he did 
not do it on a certain day, or before he was born, or 
any similar circumstance, without the words having any 
sense that would let it be known. And this is very 
convenient in many situations, and is always very just, 
when it is necessary, or useful for health, honour, or 
property." A more flagitious principle of action could 
not possibly be adopted : it extenuates any evil which 
there may be a temptation to commit, and even casts 
over an heinous crime the character of truth and 
righteousness. 

With confession, is inseparably connected one of the 
sacraments of the Romish church, to which its members 
attach great efficacy. The word by which this rite is 
known in their liturgy and canons is, penitent 'ia ; a 
word precisely the same as penitence, or repentance, of 
which it is manifestly the origin. But repentance 
denotes a change of mind, produced by Divine ope- 
ration, of which soitow for past sins is the natural 
result, and a different course the invariable evidence. 
This word, however, is always rendered in the Roman 
Catholic version of the Xew Testament " penance;'' 
and thus the mind is directed to the rite prescribed ; in 
fact, to the mere ceremonial observance. 

Some penances have been already referred to : the 



PENANCE. 



149 



general conditions of this rite are such as fasting, 
abstinence, and alms-giving ; while others of a more 
particular kind are, the repetition of ave-marias, 
pater-nosters, and creeds. Some penances, however, 
are very severe. But from the definition of a sacra- 
ment, the Romanist has learned that it confers the 
grace it represents, and that the mere act of its 
performance is efficacious. The consequence is, that he 
I will repair to the priest, make a hurried confession — 
for a priest will hear the confessions of ten persons in 
an hour — perform the penance enjoined, and then 
conclude he has actually repented, and that the absolu- 
tion granted by his confessor is positive and final. No 
wonder then that he returns home, and indulges in 
known sin without even remorse of conscience. 

In reference to Mexico, Mr. Latrobe remarks : 
" The multitude hailed the conclusion of the holy 
week. Before an hour was at an end, the streets 
resounded to the roll of the carriages and the sounds of 
innumerable hoofs ; the calzadas and canals were 
crowded with Indians returning to their homes ; the 
buyer and the dealer repaired to their traffic ; the idler 
to his vices, and the gambler to the monte- table. The 
robber, exulting under his lightened conscience, betook 
himself to his stand in the pine-forest, to commence a 



i 



150 



PILGRIMAGES. 



fresh career of rapine ; and the assassin to the resump- 
tion of his cherished schemes of blood and vengeance. 
The re-opening of the Opera was publicly announced, 
and the citizens joyfully anticipated the recommence- 
ment of bull-fights." 

" Those that have interest with the pope," says 
another modern traveller, " may obtain an absolution 
in full from his holiness for all the sins they have ever 
committed, or may choose to commit. I have seen one 
of these edifying documents, signed by the present 
pope to a friend of mine. It was most unequivocally 
worded." Another says : " At Tivoli, a man was 
pointed out to us who had stabbed his brother, who 
died in agonies within an hour. The murderer went to 
Rome, purchased his pardon from the church, and 
received a written protection from a cardinal, in conse- 
quence of which he was walking about unconcernedly, 
a second Cain, whose life was sacred." 

Pilgrimage is one form of penance, which consists in 
taking a journey to some place reported to be holy. 
It began to be made about the middle ages of the 
church, but became most general after the end of the 
eleventh century, when kings and princes visited places 
of devotion, and bishops left their churches with the 
same object. The places most frequented by the 



HOLY WELLS. 



151 



pilgrims were Rome, Jerusalem, Compostella, and 
Tours. Latterly the greatest numbers have resorted to 
Loretto, to visit the chamber in which it is said Mary 
was born, and brought up her son Jesus, till he was 
twelve years of age. 

In almost every country where Popery has been 
established, pilgrimages have been common. In 
England, the shrine of St. Thomas a Becket was a 
chief resort of the pious ; in Scotland it was at St. 
Andrew's, where it was said a leg of the apostle was 
deposited. In Ireland they have been continued even 
down to modern times. In that country "holy wells," as 
they are called, are very numerous. To one spring in 
the county of Meath is attached the following legend, 
Mr. Warren, the proprietor of the land about it, was 
washing himself in the river Jordan, to which he had 
gone on pilgrimage, when his staff dropped into the 
water, and was conveyed through a subterraneous 
passage to this well, and cast up by the water one 
Midsummer day in the sight of his shepherd ! On the 
man taking it to Mrs. Warren, she immediately knew 
it to be her husband's staff, and found an inscription 
on it, stating that great benefit would be derived from 
a pilgrimage to that well on St. John the Baptist's day ! 
Accordingly it is much resorted to by pilgrims on 



152 



HOLY WELLS. 



Midsummer eve. When they come within sight of the 
well, they approach it bare-footed and bare-headed, and 
they drink plentifully of the water. At the east 
corner they kneel, and say five paters, five aves, and 
one creed ; and the same number, in the same posture, 
at each of the other three corners, and going thrice 
round on their knees, one station, as it is called, is 
made up. Four of these stations are thus gone 
through ; after which they kneel in the water, say 
three paters, three aves, and one creed, drink of the 
water, wash in it, and conclude all with prayers to 
John the Baptist for his aid and intercession. 

In the county of M on agnail there is a well, said to have 
been consecrated by St. Patrick, near which is a small 
heap of stones, surmounted by a large one, having on it 
the print of his knee, and over all a stone cross, said to 
be erected there by himself; and at the distance of forty- 
nine paces, there is an alder tree, which is affirmed to 
have sprung up immediately on his blessing the ground. 
The pilgrims who come hither, first kneel at the north 
side of the well, salute St. Patrick, and say fifteen 
paters and one creed. They rise up, bow to him, walk 
thrice round the well, and drink of the water each time 
at the place where they began. From thence they go 
to the heap of stones, bow to the cross, kiss the print 



ST. PATRICK S PURGATORY. 



153 



of St. Patrick's knee, and put one of their knees into 
it. They then go thrice round the heap on their knees, 
always kissing this stone ; when they come to it, they 
rise up, how to it, and walk thrice round, bowing to 
the stone whenever they come before it, and the last 
time they kiss it. They go from the heap of stones to 
the alder tree, beginning at the west side by bowing to 
it, then going thrice round they bow to it from east to 
west, and then say fifteen paters and one creed. When 
any of the neighbours have their cattle sick, some of 
the water of this well is used in expectation of a cure 
— a strange and almost incredible folly, which is, how- 
ever, of frequent occurrence. 

But the most remarkable superstition of this kind 
appears in the pilgrimage of immense numbers of 
persons to St. Patrick's Purgatory, which is in an island 
situated in the midst of a lake in the county of 
Donegal. As soon as they come in sight of it, they 
take off their shoes and stockings, uncover their heads, 
and walk with their beads in one hand, and sometimes a 
cross in the other, to the lake side, from whence, at the 
charge of sixpence each, they are ferried over. They 
then go to the prior, and ask his blessing ; and afterwards 
to St. Patrick's altar, where, on their knees, they say 
one pater, one ave, and one creed, at the close of which 



154 



st. Patrick's purgatory. 



they rise and enter the chapel, where they recite three 
paters, three aves, and one creed. Beginning now at a 
corner of the chapel, they walk round it and St. 
Patrick's altar seven times, saying ten ave-marias and 
one pater every circuit. In the first and last they kiss 
the cross "before the chapel, and at the last touch it with 
their shoulders. 

They then visit the penitential beds, on which seven 
saints are said to have slept, and each of which is a 
collection of hard stones : they go round each of these 
thrice, while three paters, three aves, and one creed are 
said, and then kneeling, they recite the like number. 
Each bed is now separately entered, and going round it 
thrice in the inside, they say three paters, three aves, 
and one creed ; at the close of which they kneel and 
repeat three more of each. Leaving these beds, they 
go into the water, and thrice round some sacred stones, 
saying five paters, five aves, and one creed ; after that 
they go farther into the water to another stone, and say 
one pater, one ave, and one creed, with their hands 
lifted up ; from thence they return to the chapel, where 
they repeat the Lady's Psalter, consisting, according to 
some, of fifty aves and five paters, or according to 
others, of a hundred and fifty aves and fifteen paters ; 
and thus they finish one station, which must be 



RELICS. 



155 



performed every day, about sun-rise, noon, and sun-set, 
bread and water only being allowed the pilgrims. 

On the ninth day they are put by the prior into St. 
Patrick's cave, where they are closely shut up for 
twenty- four hours, are bound to say there as many 
prayers as on the preceding days, and are denied 
all kinds of refreshment. On the tenth day they are 
released, when they proceed immediately into the water 
to wash themselves, and more particularly the head. 
During these ceremonies mass is celebrated several 
times a day, and a sermon is daily preached in the 
Irish language. Confession must be made to a priest 
before the stations are begun, and some pilgrims do it 
much oftener, paying sixpence each time. In all 
their perambulations a staff, with a cross at the end, is 
carried. 

If any cannot perform this penance themselves, a 
license maybe obtained from the prior for another to do 
it for them : the proxy is paid for this service, and it is 
considered as available as that of the original party. On 
the return of the pilgrims, they are treated by the com- 
mon people with great veneration ; they generally kneel 
down and ask their blessing. Here again is the influence 
of the totally unscriptural doctrine of human merit : the 
deluded creatures who have gone through the penances 



156 



RELICS. 



described, fancy they have gained it ; and those who 
meet them on their way, equally superstitious, suppose 
that their words convey some peculiar virtue. 

A superstitious reverence is paid by pilgrims to what 
are called relics, the remains of the bodies or clothes of 
saints or martyrs, and the instruments by which they 
were put to death, which being devoutly preserved in 
honour to their memory, are kissed, revered, and some- 
times carried in procession. Charlemagne is declared 
to have been a great collector of relics, and to have 
obtained some of the most important from Jerusalem 
itself, from his having become master, as emperor of 
the West, not only of the Holy Sepulchre, but of 
many other sacred places and treasures, for which he 
was indebted to the king of Persia ; while many pre- 
cious relics are said to have been presents to him from 
the Greek emperors at Constantinople. Receiving them 
from every part of the globe, from a dread of his 
arms, or attachment to his religion, he distributed them 
among the various churches he founded, reserving the 
chief of them for his favourite of Xotre Dame, at Aix la 
Chapelle. 

The visitors who wish to behold them, are soon in- 
troduced to the sacristan, who orders two candles to be 
lighted, though the room may not be at the time so 



RELICS. 



157 



dark as absolutely to require their aid. The relics are 
divided into two classes ; the great and the small. The 
former are in a large silver-gilt shrine, in the form of a 
gothic tomb, richly sculptured, and adorned, it is said, 
with precious stones. On its being opened, the relics, are 
exhibited for a fortnight, every seven years, to crowds 
of devotees, who joyously receive fragments of the old 
silks in which they have been wrapped. They are affirmed 
to be : — the large cloth which received the body of John 
the Baptist after being beheaded ; the swaddling 
clothes in which Christ was attired in the manger of 
Bethlehem ; and as the most precious of the whole, the 
linen which the Redeemer wore on the cross, bearing 
upon it the traces of his blood ! 

The small relics, carried round the city once a year, 
are deposited in various shrines and cases. They are 
said to be the skull and two other bones of Charlemagne ; 
a tooth of St. Catherine ; some hair of John the Bap- 
tist ; a link of the chain of Peter when in prison ; a 
morsel of the arm of Simeon, in which he held the 
infant Saviour ; Christ's leathern girdle ; a piece of the 
cord with which his hands were bound on the cross ; a 
piece of the sponge with which his lips were moistened ; 
a spine of the crown of thorns which was placed on his 
head ; and, omitting a few relics of humbler preten- 
sions, one or two pieces of the true cross ! 



158 



RELICS. 



At the back of the high, altar of the church at 
Kreutzberg, there is a wide and superb marble staircase, 
leading down to the front of the edifice. So sacred is 
this professedly esteemed, that visitors are not allowed 
to walk on it, but are obliged to descend by its side. 
What, then, is the claim set up for it ? That it be- 
longed to Pilate's judgment-hall, was trodden by the 
Redeemer after he was scourged, and that after being 
taken from Jerusalem to Rome, it was brought hither ! 
Little circular pieces of brass let into the stone, repre- 
senting a number of drops of blood clotted together, 
are pointed out, and for these it is to be regarded with 
peculiar veneration. 

Here the influence of the pope appears. It is he 
who warrants the supernatural state of incorraption of 
the body of one saint, and traces, it is supposed, with 
unerring certainty, some straggling limb to another ! 
He, alone, has also the undoubted power of virtually 
furnishing the members of the Romish church with the 
relics of the most ancient or unknown patriarchs and 
martyrs, by declaring the fragments of any skeleton from 
the catacombs to be a part of the body in request. This 
is called christening relics. The persuasion that bones 
which have passed through this process, are as good as 
those of the favourite saint to whom they are attributed, is 
general in Spain, and probably common to all Romanists. 



RELICS. 



159 



In early ages we find the origin of a widely extended, 
and to the church of Rome, a profitable superstition. 
Thus, a hole was made in the coffins of forty martyrs 
at Constantinople, from an opinion that whatever 
touched them, derived from so doing extraordinary bene- 
fits. An ancient custom also prevailed among Christians, 
of assembling at the burying places of martyrs, to 
commemorate them, and to perform Divine worship there. 
Under the dominion of Constantine the Great, stately 
churches were erected over sepulchres ; religious ser- 
vices performed over them, were thought to have a 
peculiar sanctity and virtue ; and hence the practice 
afterwards obtained of depositing relics of saints and 
martyrs under the altars of churches. St. Ambrose 
would not consecrate a church because it had none ; and 
the council of Constantinople in Trullo, decreed that 
those altars under which no relics were found, should be 
demolished. So excessive, indeed, became the rage 
for procuring relics, that the emperor Theodosius the 
Great passed a law in 386, forbidding the people to dig 
up the bodies of the martyrs, and to traffic in their 
relics. 

The necessity of relics in a church is pleaded for in 
the present day. In the sanctuary, as it is called, of 
every Roman Catholic chapel, as we have seen, appears 



160 



RELICS. 



the altar, which, in England, is of wood, stone, or 
marble ; bnt there must he, at least, a square slab of the 
latter in the centre, on which, to use the Papists' phrase, 
" the sacrifice may be offered." Its corners bear the 
initials of the saint or angel to which it is dedicated, or 
else those of the Virgin or the Saviour ; and in it, it is 
said, there must be deposited a portion of the blood, 
bones, or other relics of saints. The process adopted 
in this case is not a little singular. The initials are 
always deeply engraved in the marble, and the bones, or 
other relics, being reduced to powder, are mixed with what 
is considered to be the blood, and then poured into the 
incisions, where they become hard. It is believed that 
the slabs are brought from Rome, and that the relics 
are deposited under the directions of the pope ; but 
every one undergoes the ceremony of consecration, and 
when set in its appointed place is covered with a linen 
cloth, adorned with fringes, ribbons, and lace. 

The influx of travellers in early timesin to the east- 
ern provinces, in order to frequent the places which 
Christ and his disciples had honoured with their presence, 
that with their bones and other remains, they might 
exert what was deemed a valuable influence, led, of 
course, to a great amount of fraud and imposture. 
The craft, dexterity, and knavery of the Greeks, found 



RELICS. 



161 



a rich prey to the credulity of the Latin relic-hunters. 
The latter paid considerable sums for legs and arms, 
skulls and jaw-bones, many of which were pagan, and 
some not human, and other things which were supposed 
to belong to distinguished members of the early church ; 
and thus they came into possession of relics, shown 
with much ostentation at the present day. 

Of imposition, in such cases, many instances might 
be given. Luther says, he had seen an image of Mary 
with her child, in the monastery at Isenach. When a 
wealthy person came thither to pray to it, the child 
turned away its face to its mother, as if it refused to 
listen, and had to seek Mary's help. But if the appli- 
cant gave* liberally to the monastery, the child turned 
to him again ; and if he promised to give more, it 
showed itself very friendly and loving, and stretched 
out its arms over him in the form of a cross. But 
how was this miracle wrought ? By human mechanism. 
The image was made hollow within, and prepared with 
hooks, lines, and screws, and behind it stood a person, 
who moved it according to the effect it was wished to 
produce. 

One of the military who has recounted his cam- 
paigns in the Spanish war, relates, that his company 
being quartered one night in a chapel for shelter, they 

M 



162 



RELICS. 



observed a large image ; in it they discovered a small 
door, by which a man might be admitted into the body 
of the figure from the vestry, and strings were hanging 
down by which the eyes might be moved. Just as they 
had done amusing themselves with this juggling trick, 
the priests arrived, and hastened to take down the 
image, covering it with a cloth, and carrying it on a 
bier, professing to remove it lest it should be pro- 
faned by the near approach of heretics ! Their real 
motive is evident ; they wished to conceal the base 
artifice, but they came too late. 

There is another tale of the same kind. A Dutch- 
man confessing to a priest at Rome, promised, by an 
oath, to keep secret whatever the priest should impart 
to him till he came into Germany ; on which he re- 
ceived a leg of the ass on which Christ rode into Je- 
rusalem, very neatly bound up in cloth, with these 
words, " This is the holy relic on which the Lord Christ 
did corporeally sit, and with his sacred legs touched 
this ass's leg!" Greatly pleased with the gift, the 
Dutchman carried the relic into Germany, and when 
he came on the borders, boasted of his possession in 
the presence of four of his companions, at the 
same time showing it to them. But each of the four 
had also promised the same secrecy, and received the 



RELICS. 



163 



same gift; they inquired therefore with astonishment, 
whether the ass on which Christ rode, had five 
legs ? The question might as properly have been, 
whether it had fifty, or five hundred, for doubtless, 
such relics were given just as long as there were such 
applicants. 

Some years ago, a vendor of relics, wearing a mask, 
and carrying a guitar, appeared at Naples. He was 
surrounded by a mob of men, women, and children, 
whom he had collected by singing aloud to his instru- 
ment, and by a hundred droll stories about every thing 
in the nursery, the calendar, and the market. At length, 
this merchant threw off his visor, laid aside his guitar, 
opened a small casket, containing leaden crucifixes, 
with other church wares, for sale ; and thus addressed 
the crowd : — 

(c Gentlemen and ladies ! there is a time for every 
thing. Of jesting we have quite enough. Innocent 
mirth is good for the body, but we require something 
good for the soul. With your consent, most illustrious 
signors and signoras, I will entertain you with some- 
thing serious, something for which you will all bless me as 
long as you live. Behold this satchel, and see these pre- 
cious gems which, lo! I shake out of it. I have just 
M 2 



164 



RELICS. 



returned from the holy house of Loretto,* on purpose to 
supply you with these jewels — jewels more precious than 
all the gold of Peru, than all the pearls of the ocean. 
Xow, beloved brethren and sisters, you doubtless fancy 
I am about to demand a price for these holy crosses in- 
finitely above your means, in order to indemnify me 
for the fatigue I have borne, purely for your good ; for 
I have come from that blessed house of Loretto, to 
this most celebrated city of Naples, the affluence and 
generosity of whose inhabitants are celebrated all the 
whole world over. But no, my generous friends, of 
your liberality and piety I shall take no such mean ad- 
vantage ; for though all these blessed crucifixes have 
actually touched the foot of that holy image of the 
blessed Virgin, which was painted by St. Luke, yet 
I disdain to demand a price at all equal to their in- 
trinsic worth. I ask not a doubloon, no, nor yet a 
dollar; in short, from pure love to you, I sell them at a 
penny a piece ! " 

The relics of this vendor were, doubtless, as genuine 
and valuable as many of far higher pretensions. The 
following are exhibited at the church of St. John, at 

* " La Santa Casa di Loretto," fabled to have been transported by angels 
from the city of Jerusalem to Dalmatia, and thence to Loretto, in Italy. 



RELICS. 



165 



Rome, on Holy Thursday: the heads of St. Peter and 
St. Paul, encased in silver busts, set with jewels ; a lock 
of the Virgin Mary's hair, and a piece of her petticoat ; 
a robe of the Saviour's, sprinkled with his blood ; some 
drops of his blood in a phial ; some of the water which 
flowed from the wound in his side ; some of the sponge 
raised to his lips ; the table at which our Lord ate the 
last supper — which could only have held the twelve 
apostles by miracle, as it seems impossible for more than 
two persons to sit at it ; a piece of the stone of the 
sepulchre on which the angel sat ; and the very por- 
phyry pillar from which the cock crowed after Peter 
denied Christ. " I thought all these sufficiently mar- 
vellous," says the narrator, " but what was my surprise 
to find the rods of Moses and Aaron ! — though how they 
got them nobody knows — and two pieces of the wood 
of the real ark of the covenant ! " 

The absurdity of such pretensions might excite a 
smile, were it not for the flagrant wickedness by which 
they are often accompanied. Thus an account of the 
relics of Charlemagne is still sold at Aix-la-Chapelle, 
under the authority of the vicar-general. It not only 
describes them, but argues their genuineness, and con- 
tains the form of words annually employed in announc- 
ing the four great relics to the people, with the prayers 



166 



RELICS. 



that are to be offered during their exhibition : one of 
which is for the pope and his cardinals, the king of Prus- 
sia, the archbishop of Cologne, the city and authorities 
of the place in which they are shown, the pilgrims by 
whom they are visited, and the souls of the departed. 
Still further, it teaches that the presence and contem- 
plation of these relics are a pledge of the special favour 
and intercession of those for whose use they were con- 
secrated, or with whose persons they were once identi- 
fied ; and they are actually pronounced to be the source 
of all happiness, welfare, and prosperity to the city, 
having, notwithstanding the devastations of the Nor- 
mans, and the troubles occasioned by heretics, its occu- 
pancy by enemies, and its having been repeatedly de- 
stroyed by fire, never been taken away, or fallen under 
the power of adversaries. 

Such facts as these are really confounding ; it is diffi- 
cult to give any adequate expression to our disgust and 
horror. Oil, holy-water, and relics, bones, bits of wood 
or cloth, and other scraps of trumpery, stand in the 
place of God. In them is the power by which evil 
may be averted, and good enjoyed ! Fearful is such 
delusion, tremendous the criminality it involves. 



LETTER VIII. 



THE MASS MODE OP ITS CELEBRATION — THE DOCTRINE OF 

TRANSUBSTANTIATION EXAMINED AND REFUTED — THE CUP 
FORBIDDEN TO THE LAITY. 

The Divine Redeemer having eaten the passover with 
his disciples on the evening on which he was betrayed, 
directed them to partake together of bread and wine, to 
be a memorial of his sufferings, and a seal of the new 
covenant which, on the next day, he was to confirm 
with his blood. It is evident, from the words he then 
spake, (see Matt. xxvi. 26—28; Mark xiv. 22—24; 
Luke xxii. 17—20 ; 1 Cor. xi. 23—26,) that^he ordi- 
nance thus instituted was designed to be perpetual ; and 
we know it has been observed by the followers of Christ, 
from that time to the present. In the primitive church, 
the original institution was retained in all its simplicity ; 
but by the church of Rome it has been awfully corrupted ; 
and this is the point which is now to be considered. 



168 



THE ROMISH TABERNACLE. 



In the centre of what is called the altar of every 
Romish chapel, but placed a little from the front, stands 
what is called the " tabernacle,' 5 consisting of polished 
brass, marble, silver, gold, or, at least, gilded wood. Its 
shape is generally octagonal ; its height, from eighteen 
inches to four feet ; and its diameter, from about one foot 
to three. In it are deposited the pix and the cibo- 
rium, formed alike of silver or gold ; or, if only plated, 
the inside of each must be formed of the precious metal. 
The pix contains the large consecrated wafer, intended 
to be exhibited for the adoration of worshippers ; the 
ciborium, the smaller ones prepared for distribution 
among the communicants. In each case the quality is 
the same : the wafer always consisting of wheat-flour and 
water, unleavened, baked between two iron plates, from 
which each one receives an impression of the cross, on 
which the Saviour is suspended, and also the initials 
I. H. S. The large wafers are about three inches in 
diameter, the small ones rather larger than a shilling ; 
all are cut out from the thin unleavened cake with an 
iron instrument, giving them at once a circular form, 
and are either provided by the servants of the priests, 
or obtained in packets from the Roman Catholic book- 
sellers. Above the tabernacle appears a cross, generally 
made of some of the richer woods, to which a smaller 



LOW MASS. 



169 



crucifix is attached, and without which, it is said, mass 
can never be celebrated. 

In a low mass, where the service is merely recited, 
there is only a priest with his two clerks, who are 
sometimes little boys. In a high mass, when the ser- 
vice is chaunted, a priest, a deacon, and a sub-deacon 
are engaged, together with two boys, called acolytes, 
and a thurifer, or incense-bearer. The priest, deacon, 
and sub-deacon, are robed and vested in a similar 
manner, and in the same colour ; the acolytes, thurifer, 
and torch-bearers, wear black or crimson cassocks, 
over which is worn a white surplice. The sub-deacon 
has to assist in the general celebration of mass, to sing 
the Epistle, and to bear the paten ; on the deacon it 
devolves, also, to assist in the general celebration, to 
sing the Gospel, and to assist in the distribution when 
there are communicants. The thurifer carries the thuri- 
bule and incense-pot ; the acolytes merely assist the 
deacon and sub-deacon, carrying to them the wine, 
water, and whatever else they require ; and the torch- 
bearers are employed, as their name denotes, and give 
effect to the whole. 

It may also be stated, that a high mass is chaunted 
by the priest, while its different parts are sung by the 
choir. A bishop's high mass is similar, but far more 



170 



HIGH MASS . 



splendid and imposing. In addition to the usual officers, 
there are, on such occasions, a crosier-bearer, and a 
mitre-bearer ; deacons, sub-deacons, or priests assist in 
attiring the bishop ; and he may be seen, vesting him- 
self, with their aid, near to the altar, even to his shoes 
and stockings. 

"When high mass is about to be celebrated, a priest 
may be observed to enter, attended by an acolyte ; the 
latter bears a vessel of water, having on its front the 
letters I. H. S., surrounded with rays of glory; and 
the former is provided with a brush, having a long 
handle, greatly resembling in shape those made of 
feathers, and used for dusting chimney ornaments. 
After the customary genuflexions at the altar, they turn 
their backs to it, and proceed together along the aisle 
of the church, through the whole congregation, while 
the priest, dipping the brush from time to time into the 
water, sprinkles the people with it on the right hand 
and the left. As the instrument is ^vaved towards any, 
or the drops fall on them, each one makes the sign of 
the cross. As soon as this ceremony is ended, the 
leader of the ceremonial, attended by acolytes, and 
incense-bearers, appears, sometimes in gorgeous array, 
and the highest service of the church of Rome proceeds. 

The priest, standing at the bottom of the altar steps, 



HIGH MASS. 



171 



with an acolyte kneeling on his right hand, and another 
on his left, now makes the sign of the cross, saying, 
" In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, 
Amen." He then says, "I will go to the altar of God," 
and afterwards recites with the clerks, in alternate 
verses, the Psalm agreeing with the fortv-third of the 
Protestant version. Now follows the conflteor, or con- 
fession. At its close, the priest ascends the three steps 
to the middle of the altar, and kisses it. Then follow 
prayers, the reading of an Epistle on the left hand of 
the altar, and that of a Gospel at the right, during wdiich 
the congregation rise, and make a cross on the forehead, 
the lips, and the "breast ; and afterwards there is the 
recitation of the creed. 

At this time the wine and water are put into the 
chalice, and the lavaho, or washing of the priests' hands 
takes place. To this succeeds the thanksgiving, at 
which a hell is rung three times ; and the consecration 
of the w^afer, or host, which the priest elevates, and at 
the same time adores, while all who are present bow 
their heads, and remain in solemn silence. The acolytes 
now retire hehind the priest, hold up his robe, called 
the chasibule, and ring a bell under the tail of it. 

Immediately after, the elevation and adoration of the 
chalice takes place. The act called the consecration, 



172 



HIGH MASS. 



is considered the most solemn part of mass, for 
it is maintained, that when the words, " This is my 
body — This is my blood/' which constitute the essence 
of the consecration, are pronounced in Latin ; the bread 
and wine are totally changed, and become " the very 
body and blood, soul and Divinity, of our Lord Jesus 
Christ."' 

A paternoster follows, and a communion, during which, 
the priest swallows the wafer as the people do, without 
biting it, and drinks the wine. Ablution, the cleansing 
or washing of the chalice, then takes place, with the 
drinking of the water thus employed ; prayers are of- 
fered, and the last Gospel is read, which is the first part 
of the first chapter of St. John's Gospel. 

The form of administering the sacrament, which must 
be received fasting, is invariable. The consecrated wafers 
are placed by the priest in the chalice, or in the paten, 
when he is about to distribute to the laity, each of 
whom kneels in the front of the sanctuary. The 
clerks, in the name of the communicants, say the con- 
fiteor, and the priest gives them absolution. A long towel 
is placed in front of the sanctuary, which each communi- 
cant takes in his hand, and places under his chin ; he 
then throws back his head a little, opens his mouth, 
and protrudes his tongue ; on doing which, the priest 



HIGH MASS. 



173 



takes a wafer between his thumb and finger, and care- 
fully places it on the tongue of the communicant. 

A mind familiar with the New Testament, and aware 
of the simplicity of the institutes of the Gospel, is not 
a little revolted by these various ceremonies. Well 
may it be asked, What can be their meaning ? The or- 
dinary mass, as explained in the " Tesaro della Devo- 
zione," a little book, put into the hands of all the 
Italians that can read, and answering the purpose of the 
English Prayer-book, is a lively representation of the 
last scenes of our Saviour's life and sufferings ; and the 
same is found in English in a small tract, entitled 
" Daily Devotions, or the most profitable manner of 
hearing Mass." Thus when the priest approaches the 
altar, Christ's entrance into the garden is to be under- 
stood ; and to the prayer which he offers there, the 
commencement of the mass alludes. When the priest 
kisses the altar, reference is made to that kiss by which 
the Saviour was betrayed. When he turns to the people, 
and repeats the " Dominus vobiscum," (The Lord be 
with you,) he is representing Christ when he turned 
and looked upon Peter. When he washes his hands, 
he figures Pilate, who declared that he washed his 
hands of the blood of that innocent man. When he ele - 
vates the consecrated wafer, he expresses the elevation 



174 



PAGAN ORIGIN OF THE MASS. 



of our Saviour on the cross. When he breaks it, he 
displays him expiring ! Such are the vain interpretations 
of the church of Rome ! 

It is, therefore, only to compare the practice of the 
Romish church, with Christ's ordinance, to perceive 
that the deviation from it is glaring and awful. To find 
the model after which it is fashioned, we must go, as we 
have done before, to pagan temples. Here, the sacri- 
fices offered by the priests, did not always consist of 
slain animals ; a small round wafer, presented at the 
altar, was often considered a sufficient offering for the 
removal of the sins of the people. It is remarkable, 
that the name given it by the pagans, was mola i from 
whence is derived the word immolare, meaning, to im- 
molate, as from hostia, comes hostire, signifying, to offer 
up the host ; and that this service, instituted by Numa, 
was named by Alexander ab Alexandro, " the unbloody 
sacrifice." 

The pagan ritual in the presentation of offerings 
equally accords with the service of the Romish church as 
already described. It required that the sacrifice should 
be made before noon, as the hours preceding it were 
considered most appropriate. The priest, with his head 
shaved, a white robe called alba, a coloured tunic, a 
pectoral covering his breast, and an amict, or veil, en- 



PAGAN ORIGIN OF THE MASS. 175 

tered on the appointed service ; and after washing his 
hands, he walked round the altar, and having made 
obeisance before it, stood facing the people who were 
considered his assistants in the celebration. Meanwhile 
the altar was decorated with lighted tapers. Incense 
was burned by inferior priests, while he made a pre- 
scribed number of prostrations ; when he spoke, it was 
in the Latin tongue ; and on the sacrifice being ended, 
the image of the god was carefully locked up, and the 
people were dismissed with the words, " It is concluded;" 
and the inferiors sprinkling the people with water having 
salt in it, which was called cleansing, or "holy water," 
retired to their homes, imagining that all the worship- 
pers had obtained a Divine pardon. 

In one remarkable particular, however, heathens dif- 
fered from Romanists in this service, which discovers, 
even on a slight observation, so many points of analogy 
to theirs. It would appear, that some persons had 
affirmed, that the priests believed or taught, that in eat- 
ing the wafers used in sacrifice, the body of their god 
was actually participated by the worshippers — but was 
this statement admitted by Cicero ? On the contrary, 
he exclaims, with manifest indignation, " Who is there, 
that has ever discovered a race of men so destitute of 
understanding, as to be capable of the belief, that the 



176 



DUPLICITY" OF ROMANISTS. 



things which they eat, and which afford sustenance to 
their bodies, are their gods?'' " Christians," said 
Crotus the Jew, in the language of surprise and re- 
pugnance, " eat their God ! " And Averroes, the 
Arabian philosopher, said, " I have travelled over the 
world, and seen many people ; but none so sottish and 
ridiculous as Christians, who devour the God whom 
they worship." 

Allusion has been made to the artifices adopted by 
Romish priests to gain admission for their doctrines, 
by flatly denying what is likely to awaken suspicion or 
disgust. The present is another case in point. A 
priest, explaining the doctrine of the eucharist to an 
extern, or one whom he hoped to proselyte, would affirm, 
that the change which takes place in the consecration of 
the wafer, is held by the Romish church to be entirely 
spiritual, and that it does not involve the physical 
change commonly, but erroneously imagined. And 
yet that church teaches that the faithful, in that sacra- 
ment, do verily and indeed take, eat, and receive the 
blood, body, soul, and Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ ; 
that it was the very body that was broken, and the very 
blood that was shed in his crucifixion. 4 4 Not only 
that the true body of Christ, and whatsoever belongs to 
the true nature of a body, as bones and sinews, but also 



THE HOST. 



177 



that whole Christ, (totum Christum,) is contained in this 
sacrament ;" and again, "We must believe all the parts 
of a body, and of blood also, to be in the sacrament," 
as the original of the Catechism of the Council of Trent 
expressly declares. 

In the " benedictions," a part of the service of almost 
weekly occurrence, and in English monasteries, some- 
times used frequently in the course of a week, it is 
said: — " Hail, true body, born of the blessed Virgin 
Mary ; which truly didst suffer, and was immolated on 
the cross for man ; whose side being pierced, sent forth 
the true blood. O grant that I may worthily receive 
that at the hour of my death. O most clement, O most 
gracious, O most sweet Saviour, Jesus, Son of the eter- 
nal God, and of the ever-blessed "Virgin, have mercy 
on me ! " 

That a change actually takes place in the elements, 
is clearly the doctrine of the Romish church, whatever 
may be affirmed, in the hope of gaining an increase of 
its members. The propriety of a question of Lady 
Jane Grey, when very young, cannot, therefore, be 
fairly disputed. She was at Xewhall, in Essex, the 
seat of Mary, afterwards raised to the throne of Eng- 
land, when walking near the chapel with Lady Anne 
Wharton, she observed her companion as they passed, 

if 



178 



HONOURS PAID TO THE HOST. 



bow to the elements of the altar. Affecting surprise, 
she inquired if the Lady Mary were in the chapel. 
" No," replied her companion, " I bend to Him who 
made us all." " How is that," retorted Lady Jane ; 
" can He be there who made us all, and yet the baker 
made him ? " 

The dogma of the church of Rome, thus ingeniously 
attacked, involves some singular regulations. If, by 
accident, a wafer should fall on the towel, this must be 
washed three times ; should it fall upon the carpet, or 
drugget, covering the floor of the sanctuary, that must 
be washed three times : and should it fall, so that the 
communicant catch it in his hand, he is required to hold 
out his hand, after the wafer has been taken away, until 
mass is finished, when the priest rubs the communi- 
cant's hand with bread, and washes it in several waters 
before it is permitted to be used. The bread, or water, 
is either buried or burned : the latter being put on the 
fire, and evaporated. If, moreover, an attendant has to 
pass the altar before consecration, he merely bows 
his head ; if, after that ceremony, he bows his knee. 
According to a table of fines for the commutation of 
offences, a priest who struck another before mass, was 
to pay two ducats, but if the blow were given after it, 
he was charged three. 



HONOURS PAID TO THE HOST. 



179 



In all Roman Catholic countries, but particularly in 
Spain, special honours are reserved for the consecrated 
host, as it is borne along through the streets. The rule 
is, that external homage is due to the king upon 
seeing him, and to God, that is, the host, preceded by 
the bell, the very moment you hear him. To both the 
title of Majesty is applied ; and a foreigner is often sur- 
prised at the hopes expressed by the Spaniards, that 
" his Majesty will be pleased to grant them life and 
health for many years more." Accordingly, the ear of 
the passer by is often saluted with the sound, "Dios su 
Magestad," and he has to kneel in homage to the host. 
In the house, the same law operates. In the midst of a 
gay, noisy party, the sound of the bell will bring every 
one on his knees, until the tinkling dies away in the dis- 
tance. Those at dinner must leave the table ; those who 
are in bed, must at least sit up ; cards are laid aside, and 
even the actors and dancers of the theatre pause, while 
they and their company fall on their knees ; but as 
soon as the sound of the bell is gone, the round 
of folly and sin is immediately resumed. Not less 
preposterous is the course adopted when the sick man 
receives the host : hardly able, perhaps, to swallow, a 
glass of water is given him to drink, and then the clerk 
says, " Has his Majesty passed ?" 



180 HONOURS PAID TO THE HOST. 

" One of the convents, the Dominican, I think," says 
Inglis, " lay in my way, and I noticed several times 
the same new carriage standing at the door ; and upon 
inquiring the meaning of this, I received the following 
explanation. When a devout person has a carriage 
built, it is sent to wait at the door of one of the 
churches or convents, until some dying person may 
happen to send to it for the last offices of religion ; and 
until the carriage has been blessed by carrying the host, 
the owner would feel himself unblessed in entering it.'' 
If, too, a person driving in his carriage at Seville, should 
meet the procession of the host, he must leave his car- 
riage, and give it up to the host, and the attendant 
priest ; or if a carriage should drive past the door of a 
house, into which the host has already entered, the 
carriage must wait at the door, to carry back to the 
church, or the convent, the consecrated wafer. 

Gross, indeed, is the superstition so fearfully appa- 
rent ; the strongest words seem weak in describing it : 
but such facts come upon us from all directions where 
Popery prevails. At the funeral of the late archbishop of 
Paris, in 1840, while psalms were continually sung by 
one company of priests, relieved at stated intervals, an- 
other was engaged in a most disgusting ceremony, that 
of laying the wafers used in the eucharist, on the already 



TRANS UBST AN TIATION OPPOSED TO THE SENSES. 181 

putrid lips of the fast decaying carcase, and then ad- 
ministering them to those who kneeled around, and who 
seemed to consider that they were highly honoured ! 

But turning from such circumstances, the Papist 
goes farther, he it remarked, than a general homage of 
the host : the Deity and humanity of the Son of God 
are declared to be entire in the bread, and also in the 
wine, and equally entire in every particle of which they 
are composed. A particle of the wafer, a drop of the 
wine, is therefore held to include the whole. Accord- 
ingly, a sacristan, who has the charge of Romish 
vestments and vessels, has to wash the munditories and 
corporals used by the priest, in three separate waters, 
before they go to the laundry ; and to see that the 
water is carefully buried in the cemetery, or evaporated 
by fire ; and that the vessels in which such washings 
take place, are swilled three times, lest there should 
remain any particle of the wafer, or drop of the wine. 
But all such acts, varied as they may be, arise from 
a fable — a wretched fable. The doctrine of transub- 
stantiation must be utterly rejected for three reasons. 

In the first place, it is opposed to the testimony of 
the senses. And this should be regarded in such a case, 
because the elements of the mass are material, and 
therefore within the range of these physical organs. 



182 TRANSUBSTANTIAT10N OPPOSED TO THE SENSES. 



The sight, the smell, the touch, the taste, here act in 
their proper sphere, and are engaged with their appro- 
priate objects. But they can detect no difference be- 
tween the wafer, or the wine, in consequence of the act 
of consecration : they evidently are after it, just what 
they were before it ; and they are so invariably, not 
only in my experience, but in that of all who bring 
them to the same test. The senses, whenever, and by 
whomsoever exercised, testify that the wafer and the 
wine are precisely what they were. If it is affirmed 
that the senses are deceived, when, as they thus fail 
universally, can we trust them ? Assuredly we never 
can ; and we must reject at once, and for ever, all their 
intimations. Is such a conclusion absurd? Then we 
must discard the doctrine that drives us to it. Our 
Lord himself urges this course, for he appealed to sense 
as conclusive, Luke xxiv. 37 — 39 ; John xx. 27. 
Besides, the miracles on which the Divine origin of 
Christianity rests, were appeals to sense. Could the 
eyes, the ears, the touch be deceived, there might be a 
miracle pretended, when none was wrought. To assert 
the doctrine of transubstantiation — to affirm that the 
evidence of sense must be rejected, is impiously to de- 
prive Christianity of the attestation of miracles, to 
rob it of the impress of the broad seal of Heaven. 



TRANSUBSTANTIATION OPPOSED TO REASON. 183 



Reason is equally opposed with the senses to this 
dogma, which supposes a body to be, at the same time, 
in more places than one. According to the doctrine of 
Romanists, it is at the right hand of God, and on the 
altars of their churches ; it is not merely in one place 
on earth, but wherever a priest duly pronounces the 
words of institution ; it is not present as a piece of mat- 
ter may be, by being divided, and carried hither and 
thither, but it is wholly present wherever and whenever 
mass is celebrated : and what is more, the humanity 
of Christ is said to be glorified on the throne of uni- 
versal empire, and humbled on the Romish altar ; it 
is seen and adored by happy spirits above, and it is 
concealed from the view of men under the appearance 
of bread and wine ! Still further, this doctrine supposes 
that the properties of matter may be separated from it, 
and may subsist by themselves. What would be said 
were a Papist to affirm, that a man's shape and features 
might continue to be visible, after he had disappeared ? 
Assuredly, he would be convicted of the grossest folly, 
unless positively insane ; and yet all this is chargeable on 
him, when he holds that the appearance and properties 
of bread may remain after it is totally changed into 
another and different substance ! A directly opposite 
conclusion is demanded by sound judgment. 



184 TRANS INSTANTIATION OPPOSED TO REASON. 

Another dictate of reason is, that whatever is re- 
ceived into the human system, can only he of advantage 
as it becomes assimilated to it ; and how can this take 
place with 6 4 soul and Divinity ? " Let these properties 
be given up, and what is received partakes merely of 
the qualities of food ; or retain them, and reason affirms 
that the effect can still only be physical. Here, then, 
is another argument, sanctioned by the example of 
" the great Teacher of Israel." " He called the multi- 
tude, and said unto them, Hear, and understand : not 
that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man," Matt, 
xv. 10, 11. With the greatest emphasis we therefore 
may say, " Not that which goeth into the mouth purine th 
a man." The moral state can only be affected and 
improved by moral means ; and with these the wafer, 
though changed in its substance by consecration, could 
have no connexion. Transubstantiation leads to abso- 
lute scepticism ; and a doctrine which leads to scepti- 
cism must be false. No doctrine can be true which 
contradicts the evidence of sense, or which violates the 
sound dictates of reason. Both are from God, as cer- 
tainly as revelation is ; by both he speaks to us, and 
what is contrary to their testimony in their proper 
sphere, cannot proceed from Him who is never at vari- 
ance with himself. 



T RAN SUBSTANTIATION OPPOSED TO SCRIPTURE. 185 

Papists, however, have recourse to a miracle, and 
affirm, that there is one in the mass ; but, be it observed, 
that it is one thing to be contrary to the course of 
nature, and another to be contrary to the nature of 
things. Now, it is contrary to the course of nature for 
the dead to rise to life and activity ; though it is perfectly 
consistent with almighty power that such cases should 
occur. But here a complete change is supposed in the 
nature of things, which is manifestly impossible. With 
profound reverence we say, that God cannot make a 
circle square, because the thing implies a contradiction ; 
in like manner, as place or locality is an attribute of 
body, he cannot make the body of Christ omnipresent, 
because to ascribe to it omnipresence is to destroy its 
very essence. Moreover, it has been the doctrine of 
the Christian church in all ages, that the two natures of 
Christ, although united, continue distinct ; for to sup- 
pose that Divine properties are communicated to the 
human nature, is to confound the Creator with the 
creature ; and even Omnipotence cannot make that 
which is finite, infinite. 

Once more, this doctrine is opposed to the testimony 
of the word of God. We may appeal, for example, to 
the record of the institution of the Lord's supper. " And 
as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, 



186 TRANSUBSTANTIATION OPPOSED TO SCRIPTURE. 

and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, 
Take, eat ; this is my body. And he took the cup, and 
gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all 
of it ; for this is my blood of the new testament, which 
is shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say 
unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the 
vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in 
my Father's kingdom," Matt. xxvi. 26 — 29. 

Here, then, our Lord speaks of the bread as his 
body, and the wine as his blood : that he does so not 
literally, as Papists say, but figuratively, many circum- 
stances tend to prove. Such a mode of address is 
common in all languages. Thus, my children, if any 
one of you pointed to a bust, you would say to a 
stranger, That is Homer, or Milton, or Locke ; or to a 
portrait, That is my father, or my mother ; and no mis- 
take would arise : so it would be in other parts of the 
earth, as the name of the thing signified was given to the 
sign. The mode of speaking thus common, is peculiarly 
so to the Syriac tongue, in which our Lord most probably 
conversed with his disciples, and to other eastern lan- 
guages, which have no term expressive of " to signify," 
or " represent," according to our sense of the word. The 
deficiency is therefore supplied by the substantive verb, 
and is and are take the place of the terms just mentioned. 



TRAN SUBSTANTIATION OPPOSED TO SCRIPTURE. 187 

In the Scriptures, examples of this use are very nu- 
merous. When Joseph expounded Pharaoh's dream 
he said, " The seven good kine are seven years," Gen. 
xli. 26. Daniel, when explaining the dreams of the 
great image and of the great tree, thus addressed Nebu- 
chadnezzar, " Thou art this head of gold ; and the tree 
that thou sawest, it is thou, O king," Dan. ii. 38 ; 
iv. 20, 22. In the New Testament we find the idiom 
of the Greek followed: as, "The field is the world ; the 
good seed are the children of the kingdom ; but the 
tares are the children of the wicked one ; the enemy 
that sowed them is the devil ; the harvest is the end 
of the world ; and the reapers are the angels," Matt, 
xiii. 38, 39. 

In the same way, circumcision, which was only the 
sign of a solemn engagement, is called by Jehovah, his 
covenant, and the victim which was slain as a me- 
morial of Israel's deliverance from the destroying 
angel, is denominated, " the Lord's passover." Point- 
ing to the rock smitten by the rod of Moses, Paul says, 
" That Rock was Christ ;" and when uming on the Gala- 
tians the liberty offered by the new dispensation, he 
says, " It is written, that Abraham had two sons, the 
one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. But 
he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh ; 



188 TRANSUBSTANTIATION OPPOSED TO SCRIPTURE. 

but he of the free woman was by promise. Which 
things are an allegory : for these are the two covenants ; 
the one from Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, 
which is Agar," Gal. iv. 22 — 24. 

As, then, Jesus had said on former occasions, in con- 
formity with a practice thus general, " I am the door — 
I am the good Shepherd — I am the true vine," and as 
he thus intimated that there were certain respects in 
which these objects represented himself ; so when he 
affirmed that the bread was his body, and the wine his 
blood, his disciples would at once understand that they 
were so, not literally, but figuratively ; not actually, 
but symbolically. 

Other circumstances would tend to prevent a differ- 
ent conclusion. The disciples were of a race to whom 
it was said, " The life of the flesh is in the blood ; no 
soul of you shall eat blood," and hence, when, on 
another occasion, Jesus spake of eating his flesh, and 
drinking his blood, the Pharisees denounced it as ab- 
surd and impossible. "When, too, the ordinance of the 
Lord's supper was instituted, his body was not broken, 
his blood was not shed ; the agony of the cross had 
not been experienced, it was only in prospect. If, how- 
ever, to remove this difficulty it should be said the 
terms " broken" and "shed" were used figuratively, it 



TRANSUBSTANT1ATI0N OPPOSED TO SCRIPTURE. 189 

may be replied, that the whole statement must be inter- 
preted on the same principle ; that it is altogether 
figurative, or altogether literal. That it was not taken 
literally, has been already apparent ; but it may perhaps 
be made still more clear. 

Adopting the principle of literal interpretation, the 
word 44 cup " neither means the wine nor the blood, for 
Christ distinctly says, 44 This cup is the new testament 
in my blood," which is to reduce his words to a manifest 
absurdity. In like manner, there were at this time two 
bodies of the Saviour, the one saying of the other, 44 Take, 
eat," and as Jesus partook of the bread and the cup, 
so he must have eaten of his own body, and drank his 
own blood ! Adopting the figurative sense all is, on 
the contrary, clear, natural, and consistent : while to 
this we seem to be shut up by the declaration of Christ, 
44 I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, 
until that day when I drink it new with you in my 
Father's kingdom" — clearly intimating, as words could 
express, that the wine, though he had blessed it, re- 
mained what it was, and that the pretension of the 
Papist to a change in the elements, as the result of con- 
secration, is utterly unsustained by Christ's authority. 

Another part of the Redeemer's language is equally 
metaphorical, for the actions of the mind are often 



190 IS TRAN SUBSTANTIATION REALLY BELIEVED? 

exhibited in Scripture by those of the body. Solomon 
says, " The soul of the transgressor shall eat violence," 
Prov. xiii. 2. Jeremiah ate the words of God, as did 
Ezekiel the roll, and John the little book. In his con- 
versation with the woman of Samaria, Christ described 
his followers as drinking living water. The meaning 
of such representations is perfectly clear ; and, conse- 
quently, the whole statement of the Redeemer must be 
received as figurative. 

With the strongest possible evidence against tran sub- 
stantiation, the question arises, Can it be cordially 
believed ? And certainly there are facts which warrant 
suspicion of widely extended scepticism on this point. 
" The consecrated host," says O'Croly, " when it hap- 
pens to suffer decomposition, is acknowledged to be 
nothing more than decayed bread, unfit to nourish 
either body or soul." One would think that such a 
change were fatal to the belief that here, in circum- 
stances of decay, were the body and soul of the Divine 
Saviour. Is it said, " They cannot decay ?" Then as- 
suredly, they were never there. 

One gentleman says, " The late Sir Richard Mus- 
grave, Bart., who wrote a history of the last Irish 
Rebellion, assured me, that he has frequently seen 
priests take the wafers from their pixes, (boxes to 



IS TR AN SUBSTANTIATION REALLY BELIEVED? 191 

hold what they call the consecrated wafer,) and seal 
their letters with them. If they believe in transub- 
stantiation, they must believe that each wafer contains, 
nay, is the real body and blood of our Lord Jesus 
Christ ; and nothing but the greatest scepticism to their 
avowed or professed opinions, could induce them to 
apply this consecrated host to such profane uses." 

Only one more fact of this kind need be added. 
"When the cholera visited Rome, the pope, in order to 
relieve the uneasy apprehensions of infection which 
troubled the priests in visiting the dying, had recourse 
to the following extraordinary expedient, to obviate 
the necessity of contact with the patients. The very 
words of the pope's order are quoted. " The sanatory 
commission of the province shall ask of the respective 
bishops, that there may be given to the parish priests 
sufficient instruction for the occasion, that when they 
require it, they may obtain the necessary authority 
from the holy father ; and, in short, that those holy 
ecclesiastics, who from zeal may devote themselves to 
the work of the ministry, under circumstances of such 
danger, may and ought to take precaution, and avoid 
immediate contact with the sick persons, and therefore 
may robe themselves as quickly as possible, and ad- 
minister the eucharist with a pair of tongs!" Is it 



192 ORIGIN OF TRAXSUBSTANTI ATIOX. 



possible, then, that even the pope believes in transub- 
stantiation ? 

This doctrine, contradicted alike by sense, reason, 
and Scripture, appears to have sprung up, and to 
have been adopted, at a period when true knowledge 
scarcely existed, when immorality kept pace with 
ignorance, when the clergy and laity were sunk in equal 
degeneracy, and when the mind was prepared, under the 
power of superstition and error, to embrace any ab- 
surdity, whatever its grossness. It is traced to Pasca- 
sius, who lived in the ninth century, and is affirmed 
to have been previously unknown. The celebrated 
Erasmus represents " the church as late in defining 
transubstantiation, and accounting it enough, during a 
long period, to believe that the Lord's true body was 
present under the consecrated bread, or in any other 
way." Nor did it gain a quiet entrance ; it was opposed 
by nearly all the piety and erudition of the age. 

Other corruptions of the ordinance of Christ arose. 
One was the dipping of the bread in the wine, before 
its presentation to the communicant : another was the 
annexing of quills, or pipes of silver, to the chalice, 
avowedly to prevent the spilling of the fluid, or the 
irreverent intrusion of men's beards : the third was that 
of half- communion — the reservation of the cup for the 



THE CUP FORBIDDEN TO THE LAITY. 193 

clergy, and the grant of the wafer only to the laity ; 
another departure from the primitive rule. This was 
not fully carried into effect till long afterwards. It was 
one result of the absurdity of tran substantiation ; and the 
only reason at first assigned, was the danger lest the 
blood of Christ should be spilled : but the point gained, 
was to put a distinction between the priest and the lay- 
man. It also led to the absurdity of teaching, that both 
kinds were received under each, directly contrary both 
to the literal and the figurative statement of Christ him- 
self. 

Appealing again to the Scriptures, it is worthy of 
remark, that the command in reference to the cup, is 
more definite and comprehensive than that respecting 
the bread. In the one instance, we read : ' ' Take, eat ;" 
in the other, as though it was intended expressly to 
guard against this gross error, "Drink ye all of it." 
Both appear united when the apostle says : " The cup 
of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of 
the blood of Christ ? The bread which we break, is it 
not the communion of the body of Christ? For we 
being many are one bread, and one body : for we are 
all partakers of that one bread," 1 Cor. x. 16, 17. 
With equal clearness, too, does he afterwards show that 
"the cup of the Lord" was drank of by the members 

o 



194 THE CUP FORBIDDEN TO THE LAITY. 

of the church at Corinth. And there is a general 
statement in reference to this ordinance, 1 Cor. xi. 
23—28. 

The withholding the cup from the laity is, therefore, a 
flagrant innovation on the practice of apostolic times, 
and one chargeable on the church of Rome at a period 
comparatively recent. Ignatius says, " One bread is 
broken to all ; one cup is distributed to all." Irenseus 
declares, that " the flesh is fed by the body and blood of 
Christ, and that of the cup and the bread the substance 
of our flesh is increased and consists." Athanasius 
affirms, that it belongs to the priests of right to give 
the cup to the people. Speaking of the newly baptized, 
St. Augustine says, " In all their trials, and their 
time of being catechumens, they did approve them- 
selves, that they might eat the Lord's body, and drink 
the cup." 

All the ancient accounts we have of the manner of 
celebrating the Lord's supper show that it was admi- 
nistered in both kinds. The same fact appears in all 
the offices of the western churches, not excepting the 
Romish missals, to the twelfth century. One of its 
forms speaks of the priests commemorating alike with 
the sacred orders, and with all the people, without any 
difference: it concludes with the prayer, " That as many 



THE CUP FORBIDDEN TO THE LAITY. 195 



as have taken the body and blood of Christ may be 
filled with all heavenly benediction and grace ; " and a 
petition of later date fully corresponds witH it in suppli- 
cating spiritual blessings for those who, taking " the 
communion of this holy bread and cup, are made one 
body in Christ." 

The origin of the separation of the two elements is 
referable to the twelfth century. The former practice 
of communion in both kinds was, however, asserted 
after the denial of the cup had taken place. So it was 
with the abbot of Corbey himself, though the parent of 
tran substantiation. He adds, to statements equally 
clear and decisive, that " when Christ gives the sacra- 
ment by the hands of the ministers, he says also by 
them, ' Take, and drink ye all of this:' as well mi- 
nisters as all the rest that believe ; this is the £ cup of 
my blood, of the new and everlasting testament.'" 
Other declarations were made by various members of 
the church of Rome of a similar character. The undis- 
puted fact for which we have contended, and the power 
by which alteration was effected, are, however, alike 
apparent in the following statements, issued by the 
Council of Constance : " Though Christ did administer 
this venerable sacrament under both kinds of bread 
and wine ; yet, notwithstanding this, the custom of 

o 2 



196 



LOVE OF POWER. 



communicating under one kind only, is now to be taken 
for a law." 

Out of the mouth, of her own zealous advocates, the 
practice of the church of Rome is condemned. Within 
its pale the learned Cassander lived and died, yet he 
says : '''It is sufficiently known, that the universal 
church of Christ to this very day, and the western 
and Roman for above one thousand years after Christ, 
did exhibit both the species of bread and wine to all 
the members of the church, especially in the solemn 
and ordinary dispensation of the sacrament, which ap- 
pears from innumerable testimonies, both of the ancient 
Greek and Latin writers/' As, too, some contended 
that communion in one or both kinds was a matter of 
indifference, he thus replies : "I have searched, and 
that not slightly, the custom of the ancient church, and 
profess to have read the writings of those who have 
handled this argument with an attentive and impartial 
mind, and have weighed the reasons by which they en- 
deavour to prove this indifferent custom ; but neither 
could I find any firm proof, which could not be most 
plainly refuted, though I most earnestly wished it ; but 
there remained many, and those the most strong, rea- 
sons which evince the contrary." And with equal can- 
dour he adds, in answer to others : " I do not think 



LOVE OF POWER, 



197 



that it can be shown, for a whole thousand years and 
more, that this most holy sacrament of the encharist 
was ever administered from the Lord's table, in the 
holy communion to the faithful people, in any part of 
the Catholic church, otherwise than under both the 
symbols of bread and wine." 

No violence is done to the cause of Christian charity, 
by attributing the doctrine of transubstantiation to a 
love of power. It is, as Burnet long since said, " One 
of the designs of the priests for establishing the authority 
of that order ;" and hence, as he adds, " No wonder they 
took all imaginable pains to infuse it into the belief of 
the world." A race of men who, in the utterance of a 
few words, could change the wafer into the person of the 
Saviour, must manifestly rise to a dazzling height be- 
yond the surrounding multitude. " Great," said an in- 
spired apostle, "is the mystery of godliness : God was 
manifest in the flesh ;" but here, that mystery is de- 
clared to be repeated at the will of the priest whenever 
he pleases. To admit this, is to surrender the soul 
to a more abject bondage than chains and fetters can 
impose on the body, and leads on to many evils of the 
worst description. Any modification of the doctrine 
of transubstantiation is equally inadmissible, though 
sometimes contended for by men who call themselves 



198 



ONLY ONE SACRIFICE FOR SIN. 



Protestants ; it teaches a superior, and more than human 
authority in that man who is supposed to have the 
power of thus operating upon bread and wine ; and if 
any departure from the original state of these sub- 
stances be allowed, we cannot stop till all the absurdi- 
ties of Rome are admitted. Thought, judgment, affec- 
tion, are all taken captive, and the most grievous oppres- 
sion that can arise is experienced — the tyranny of the 
soul. Hail, happy day, that brought us freedom ! May 
it soon be possessed by all the enthralled ! 

The invasion of the Divine prerogative is no less ap- 
parent to him who trembles at the word of God. In a 
great Roman council, Urban said : " The hands of the 
pontiff are raised to an eminence granted to none of the 
angels, of creating God, the Creator of all things, and of 
offering him up for the salvation of the whole world ;" and 
to this blasphemous declaration the synod unanimously 
answered, Amen. Cardinal Biel says, " He that created 
me, gave me, if it be lawful to tell, to create himself." 
Extending this power to all priests, he declares that it 
raises each one above the Virgin Mary, since she only 
once gave birth " to the Son of God and the Redeemer 
of the world, while the priest daily calls into existence 
the same Deity." 

Impious indeed are such assertions, while they are 



ONLY ONE SACRIFICE FOR SIN. 199 

connected with others equally so— that Jesus thus ap- 
pears in the wafer and wine, to be offered up as a sacri- 
fice for sins. That such a representation is erroneous 
is plain to every attentive reader of the Scriptures. 
When the apostle Paul was arguing for the substitution 
of Christianity for Judaism, and for the superiority of 
Jesus to the priests under the law, he says: " Who 
needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up 
sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's : 
for this he did once, when he offered up himself," Heb. 
vii. 26, 27. Again he says : " Christ was once offered 
to bear the sins of many," Heb. ix. 28; and with equal 
explicitness, " We are sanctified through the offering of 
the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest 
standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the 
same sacrifices, which can never take away sins : but 
this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for 
ever, sat down on the right hand of God," Heb. x. 
10 — 12. These declarations must exclude from every 
mind subjected to the authority of Divine revelation, 
every idea of Christ's becoming a sacrifice, except on 
one memorable occasion, when, at the same time the 
Great High Priest and the victim, he presented himself 
an offering for the sins of the whole world on the altar 
of Calvary. 



200 



ONLY ONE SACRIFICE FOR SIN. 



Yes, the whole scheme of mercy was complete w 
Jesus exclaimed, " It is finished!" 

"'Tis finished!" the mysterious plan, 
The mighty destiny of man : 
Angels had gazed with baffled skill, 
And time but travelled to fulfil. 

"'Tis finished!" all the vision high 
That rapt of old the prophecy; 
And still with ecstacy shall break 
O'er the last martyr's flaming stake. 

"'Tis finished!" see the Victor rise, 
Shake off the grave, and claim the skies. 
Ye heavens, your doors wide open fling ; 
Ye angel choirs, receive your King. 

"'Tis finished!" — but what mortal dare 
In that triumphant hope to share ] 
Saviour, to thy cross I flee; 
Say, "'Tis finished!" and for me. 

Then will I sing, The cross I the cross! 
And count all other gain but loss : 
I'll sing the cross, and to thy tree, 
Cling evermore, bless'd Calvary 



LETTER IX. 



THE WORSHIP OF SAINTS AND IMAGES — RECENT CANONIZATION 
— ALLIANCE OF ROMANISM WITH THE PRACTICES OF ANCIENT 
HEATHENS — CONDEMNATION OF THEM BY THE SCRIPTURES. 

The heart of man, withdrawn by its depravity from the 
service of God, sought another object of regard and 
homage. The creature was soon worshipped more than 
the Creator, and idols of human invention were rever- 
enced and loved instead of the Great Supreme. No 
wonder that tremendous judgments followed such aggra- 
vated iniquity. 

Ancient idolaters had their tutelary divinities, the 
supposed defenders of their respective countries, as 
Belus was of Babylon, and Isis and Osiris of Egypt : 
and has not Popery invoked the aid of St. James for 
Spain, St. Louis for France, St. George for England, 
St. Patrick for Ireland, and others for different parts of 
the earth ? The cities of former times were committed 



202 



PATRON GODS OF HEATHENS. 



to the care of various divinities, as Athens to Minerva, 
Carthage to Juno, and Rome to Quirinus ; and those of 
Rome are entrusted to a similar protection, as Amiens to 
St. Firmin, and Naples to St. Januarius. 

The office of the patron gods of the heathen was to 
preside over the temples and altars. The patron saints 
of Papists, among whom they frequently refer to our 
Lady of Loretto, are analogous to Jupiter in the capitol, 
and Diana in the temple of Ephesus. Even under 
the diseases incident to the human frame, they suppose 
they have an individual on whom to hope, in addition 
to the physician. According to them, St. Roque is to 
be invoked when plague is apprehended ; St. Domingo 
cures the fever ; St. Blass heals disorders of the throat ; 
St. Lucia those of the eyes ; while St. Appolonia pre- 
serves the teeth. Other aid is equally besought, as 
that of St. Anthony the abbot, who is believed by 
many to secure his votaries from fire ; or St. Anthony 
of Padua, from water ; or St. Barbara, who is the re- 
fuse of the timid in times of thunder and of war. 

Pagans had, in like manner, their intercessory deities. 
Hesiod clearly states the doctrines concerning demons, 
or the worship of the spirits of the dead — men eminent 
for their virtue, and believed to be appointed on that 
account, by the ruler of the world, to become mediators 



WORSHIP OF SAINTS. 



203 



and subordinate governors under him. Thus, Apuleius 
says, "All things are to be thought to be done by the 
will, power, and authority of the celestial gods, but by 
the means, despatch, and administration of the de- 
mons :" a term designed to point out inferior divinities. 
Plato makes a similar statement : " The demons are 
between God and man, interpreting and carrying things 
between the gods and men ; bringing before the gods the 
prayers and sacrifices of men ; and bringing to men the 
orders of the gods, and their rewards for their sacrifices. 
God is not mixed with men : but through the demons 
is all converse and intercourse between the gods and 
men, whether the latter are asleep or awake." 

The accordance of these statements with the doctrines 
of Popery, will be apparent from the following quotation 
from its most celebrated guides to devotion : — " St. 
Michael, pray for us. St. Gabriel, pray for us. All ye holy 
angels and archangels, pray for us. All ye holy orders 
of blessed spirits, pray for us. St. John Baptist, St. 
Joseph, all ye holy patriarchs and prophets, pray for 
us. St. Peter, St. Paul, etc. All ye holy apostles and 
evangelists, pray for us. All ye holy disciples of our 
Lord, all ye holy innocents, pray for us. St. Stephen, 
St. Lawrence, etc. All ye holy bishops and confessors, 
pray for us. All ye holy priests and Levites, all ye 



204 



CANONIZATION OF SAINTS. 



holy monks and hermits, pray for us. St. Mary 
Magdalene, St. Agatha, etc. All ye holy virgins and 
widows, pray for us. All ye men and women, saints of 
God, make intercession for us." And to mention an in- 
dividual instance, the cathedral of Freyburg is dedicated 
to St. Nicholas, and at the entrance there is an inscrip- 
tion, in which the passage in 2 Kings xix. 34, promising 
Jehovah's protection to Jerusalem against the army of 
Sennacherib, is thus perverted : " For I will defend this 
city, to save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant 
Nicholas's sake." 

That Popery remains in this state of gross super- 
stition, as in other respects it continues what it was, is 
evident from a volume lately published, containing a 
biography of five new saints, whose canonization took 
place at Rome so recently as May, 1839. Here, it may 
be remarked, we witness the close of a long and compli- 
cated process. On the death of one whose life and actions 
are thought to entitle the person to the rank of a saint, 
the prelate within whose jurisdiction he or she had been, 
forwards to Rome two documents ; one attesting his or 
her reputation for sanctity and miraculous gifts, the other, 
that as yet he or she has received no public honours. On 
the arrival of these papers at Rome, they are laid before 
the congregation of rites — an ecclesiastical court, com- 



CANONIZATION OF SAINTS. 



205 



posed of a number of cardinals and various subordinate 
officers. The advocates appointed to conduct the case 
then petition the congregation to permit these papers to 
be opened, and the cause to be commenced. Various pro- 
ceedings now begin, some steps of the process requiring 
an interval of even ten years ; and should the result of 
these tedious inquiries be favourable to the pretensions 
of the deceased, and fifty years at least have elapsed, 
the congregation decree that he or she is to be beatified. 
Of course these delays are favourable to the removal of 
those who would remember that the pretended saints 
were mere mortals like themselves. It must be further 
proved that miracles have been performed since the 
beatification, and when this is done, the enrolment 
takes place with imposing pageantries and ceremonials, 
over which the pope presides. 

Most offensive and disgusting are such statements, 
while their wickedness is glaring. I quote them only 
for the sake of showing that, whatever are the pretences 
of its adherents, Romanism is unchanged and un- 
changeable. It is now what it was in former times, 
and what it will be until the period of its entire de- 
struction. Allow not yourselves then, my dear chil- 
dren, to be imposed on in reference to its character, even 
for a single moment, by the specious representations 



206 



TENDENCY TO IDOLATRY. 



of designing or grossly deluded men, who in our land 
try to allow only a modified state of their superstition 
to appear ; but in spite of their endeavours, the truth 
will come out in all its breadth and colouring. 

It is a lamentable fact, that a fearful tendency to 
idolatry is discoverable in man, not only when a 
written revelation is not possessed, but also when the 
will of God is plainly revealed. Still, there are the 
most express and solemn admonitions warning us 
not to partake of these evils. Had some of the early 
Christians cast only a few grains of incense on a pagan 
altar, though they had not uttered a word, this would 
have saved their lives ; but a multitude refused even 
thus to unite in the worship of heathens, preferring 
death to the slightest semblance of idolatry. And yet, 
here are those who call themselves Christians, and claim 
an uninterrupted descent from those of primitive times, 
actually worshipping them as martyrs, with the same 
rites that they refused to perform, and, in consequence, 
suffered death ! 

In the objects addressed by Papists, under the cha- 
racter of intercessors, there is one peculiarly prominent ; 
and when we consider the disposition of converts from 
paganism to mingle and confound their idolatry with 
the system they espoused, and the willingness of pro- 



HONOURS PAID TO THE VIRGIN. 



207 



fessing Christians to meet their prejudices and predi- 
lections, we shall not be surprised, however we may be 
grieved, to find, that many of the rites, and much of the 
reverence, attached to the female deities of old, were 
continued in favour of the Virgin Mary. In this, too, 
they imitated the Arabians, who have always offered a 
peculiar adoration to the moon. "When a part of the 
country of these people became Christianized, the sect 
of the Collyridians sprang up in it, offering the same 
cakes to the Virgin that they had formerly presented to 
Diana ; invoking them both, however, by the same title, 
" The queen of heaven." The Romanists have dis- 
continued the offering of the cakes, but have retained 
the worst part of the heresy. The error with which 
they are chargeable was promoted, most probably, by 
the title assigned her, " The mother of God." This 
was applied without scruple : the famous Nestorian 
controversy brought this blasphemous appellation into 
debate, and occasioned the council of Ephesus, in 428, 
which decided that the term might be used with pro- 
priety. The honours offered to the Virgin, more parti- 
cularly by the Italians, have a remarkable resemblance 
to the worship of Cybele and of Isis, the same titles 
and epithets being applied to Mary, as were formerly 
given to ' 6 the queen of heaven." The feast of the 



208 



PICTURES OF THE VIRGIN. 



Virgin in the Calendar, commonly known as Lady day, 
was anciently dedicated to Cybele. In various instances 
the Virgin has succeeded to the mother of the gods, or 
to Venus, in the superstition of the modern Romans. 
The influence of this error is indeed constantly ap- 
parent. Pictures may frequently be seen in Romish 
churches abroad, in which some deliverance is por- 
trayed as being wrought, and where Mary appears 
peculiarly prominent. Thus a vessel may be observed 
in imminent peril from a storm, but in the upper part 
of the representation the Virgin is seen holding the 
infant Jesus, just as a nurse would a child with which 
she was entrusted ; the consequence of which is sup- 
posed to be the security of all on board. 

On the high altar of the church of the Recolletes, at 
Ghent, there is a picture by Rubens, of Christ, with 
Jupiter's thunder and lightning in his hand, denouncing 
vengeance on a wicked world, represented by a globe 
lying on the ground, with the serpent twined round it, 
which globe St. Francis appears to be covering and 
defending with his mantle, while Mary holds Christ's 
hand, and intercedes to avert his deserved wrath. 

A shrewd observer thus adverts to the ordinary 
feelings of the Italians, in reference to the Madonna : 
" Are they in danger ? Upon her they call for help. 



PRAYER TO THE VIRGIN. 



209 



Have they experienced any signal deliverance ? To 
her influence it is ascribed. The most splendid of 
their processions are dedicated to her glory." 

Thus, in the " Garden of the Soul," in the litany of 
our Lady of Loretto, it is said, " We fly to thy patron- 
age, O holy mother of God ; despise not our petitions 
in our necessities, but deliver us from all dangers, O 
ever glorious and blessed Virgin." And in a hymn 
with which the service begins, not only is the Virgin 
besought to convey "our prayers " to her Son, but she 
is addressed as follows : — 

" O pure, O spotless maid, 

Whose meekness all surpass'd ; 
Our lusts and passions quell, 

And make us mild and chaste : 
Preserve our lives unstain'd, 
And guard us in our way, 
Until we come with thee 
To joys that ne'er decay." 

The following is a description of the worship of a 
ship's company in the Mediterranean, by an intelligent 
and Christian observer. "Soon after sunset, the captain 
assembled all the sailors in the aft part of the ship to 
prayers, he himself performing the part of chaplain, 
while they knelt down and engaged in a service which 
lasted half an hour. It was chiefly in Latin ; but the 

p 



210 



WORSHIP OF THE VIRGIN. 



sailors appeared well acquainted with the words. After 
the paternoster, they went through the rosary, or hymn 
to the Virgin : the master and the mate taking one part, 
while the whole ship's company chaunted the responses 
in good time and tune ; while as one tender epithet by 
which she is addressed was employed after another, 
there was the cadence of ' Ora pro nobis,' — Pray for us. 
Other petitions were then offered to various saints for 
defence from divers evils, and the Virgin was addressed 
under her different titles, di Loretto, del Carmine, etc." 

That each image of the Virgin or the saints is per- 
sonified and treated as a separate object of worship, is 
denied by Papists ; but the popular belief to that effect 
is rather encouraged than discountenanced. Thus one 
image or picture has more votaries than others. In 
England, before the Reformation, the image of the 
Virgin at Walsingham, in Norfolk, was visited from all 
parts of the country, by persons who had images of 
Mary in their own towns. This popular belief, which 
is one of the most dangerous delusions of the Romish 
superstition, is exemplified to the present day, by the 
piferari, or pipers. These are generally Calabrese pea- 
santry, and perform, upon a kind of bagpipe, national 
devotional airs of a peculiar modulation, before the 
shrines and statues of the Virgin in Rome, during 



WORSHIP OF THE VIRGIN. 



211 



Christmas. One has an inscription over the alms- 
box, 

Limosina per ricordo dell anime del purgatorio. 
Alms for remembering the souls in purgatory. 

Under the picture appears : — 

Virgine Maria, Madre di Dio, pregate Jesu per me. 
Virgin Mary, Mother of God, beseech Jesus for me. 

Burney, in his " Musical Tour," gives an interesting 
account of the astonishing variety of modulations the 
street music of the Neapolitans introduces into the most 
common airs. These men are, it is said, paid by the 
government to come in considerable numbers to Rome, 
and to add to the so-called devotional excitement of the 
people, by playing one of their airs, supposed by the 
lower orders to have been played by the shepherds at 
the birth of Christ. 

Dr. Moore, in his " View of Society and Manners in 
Italy," has an anecdote in reference to these serenades 
of the Virgin Mary's pictures, which shows how readily 
adoration through images becomes direct image worship. 
He says : — " Here it is a popular opinion that the Virgin 
Mary is very fond and an excellent judge of music. I 
received this information on a Christmas morning, when 
I was ldbking at two poor Calabrian pipers, doing their 
p 2 



212 



WORSHIP OF THE VIRGIN. 



utmost to please her and the infant in her arms. They 
played for a full hour to one of her images, which stands 
at the corner of a street. All the other statues of the 
Virgin which are placed in the streets, are serenaded 
in the same manner every Christmas morning. On my 
inquiring into the meaning of that ceremony, I was 
told the above-mentioned circumstance of her character. 
My informer was a pilgrim, who stood listening with 
great devotion to the pipers. He told me, at the same 
time, that the Virgin's taste was too refined to have 
much satisfaction in the performance of these poor Ca- 
labrians, which was chiefly intended for the infant ; 
and he desired me to remark, that the tunes were plain, 
simple, and such as might naturally be supposed agreeable 
to the ear of a child of his time of life " Such is the po- 
pular belief ; but how completely it discards all real re- 
ference to Him who is thus represented ! who is not 
now, as more than eighteen hundred years ago, an in- 
fant ; but having suffered for our sins, has " sat down on 
the right hand of the Majesty on high," Heb. i. 3, 4. 
How completely does this representation of Christ as an 
infant of days, keep out of view the great work of the 
atonement, and promote the error of applying to his 
mother as a mediator having authority over him ! 

And yet, despite of these facts, which are only a few r 



WORSHIP OF THE VIRGIN. 



213 



from a multitude, a Popish priest will sometimes contend, 
in the presence of Protestants, that the members of his 
church never pray to angels or saints, except as to in- 
tercessors ; and that they never ask them to confer any 
blessing. Yet what is actually the case ? It is, that 
in all the public offices, from the Purification of the 
Virgin until Thursday in holy week — a space of about 
three months — they say, at the close of every day's 
office, " Make me worthy to praise thee, O sacred Vir- 
gin ; give me strength against thine enemies." The 
Latin word here rendered " give," is the one used in 
all direct supplications to the Divine Being, and is 
never employed in the sense of to procure, or obtain. At 
the close of the Rosary of the Virgin, a collection of 
prayers said weekly, there is the following address : 
" Hail ! holy queen, mother of mercy, our life, our 
sweetness, and our hope ; to thee do we cry, poor ba- 
nished sons of Eve ; to thee do we send our sighs, 
mourning and weeping in this valley of tears ; turn, 
then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy 
towards us, and after this our exile is ended, show us 
Jesus, O most clement, most pious, and most sweet 
Virgin Mary." Similar quotations might be given in 
abundance. 

To take, however, a recent instance. In the ency- 



214 



WORSHIP OF THE VIRGIN. 



clical letter of Pope Gregory xvi., dated August 15, 
1832, the following passage occurs, after enumerating 
various objects to be desired : — " That all these events 
may come to pass happily and successfully, let us lift 
up our eyes and hands to the most holy Virgin Mary, 
who alone has destroyed all heresies, and is our greatest 
confidence, even the whole foundation of our hope." 
Thus the head of the Romish church, in the nine- 
teenth century, raises the Virgin Mary to the eleva- 
tion which ought only to be ascribed to the Divine 
Redeemer. 

Another case of the same kind has occurred within 
the last few months, Towards the close of 1839, a 
"mandement" was published, and affixed in conspicuous 
places in all the churches of Paris, in which the 
archbishop reminds the clergy of a letter addressed to 
them at the beginning of the year, on the subject of 
certain favours received from the pope. It seems that 
the pontiff had entrusted to him the means of extending 
more and more the worship of Mary : who is to be 
specially celebrated for the future, throughout the 
diocese of Paris, on the second Sunday in Advent, 
when a plenary indulgence is granted to the faithful of 
both sexes. That modern Popery is what it was in the 
dark ages, is evident from the words of the archbishop 



WORSHIP OF THE VIRGIN. 



215 



in the document referred to : " Such were the graces 
which we had obtained, and which we regarded as 
pledges of sanctification and salvation both for you and 
for us." 

It is, therefore, absolutely indisputable, notwithstand- 
ing every effort of sophistry and artifice, that the 
expressions peculiar to the Saviour himself are often 
applied to Mary : thus she is styled " the gate of 
salvation;" and it is said, " There is no one who can be 
saved, O most holy Virgin, but through thee." In one 
of the churches at Namur, there is a profane inscription, 
describing the Virgin as " the refuge of sinners," A 
similar fact appears in the works of Bonaventure, one 
of the most celebrated devotional writers of the Romish 
church, surnamed " the seraphic doctor ;" and still fur- 
ther, a cardinal, canonized two centuries after his death, 
all of whose productions are in the Bodleian Library at 
Oxford. He was the author of " The Mary Psalter," which 
those who are admitted into the " Confraternity of the 
Sacred Rosary" are recommended to recite once a week. 
Here, strange and fearful to tell, the name of God is 
everywhere displaced, that the name of Mary may be 
inserted ! Here we read, " In thee, O Lady, have I 
hoped ; let me never be confounded. Receive me into 
thy favour, incline to me thine ear. Into thine hand, 



216 



WORSHIP OF THE VIRGIN. 



O Lady, I commend my spirit. Bring unto our Lady, 
O ye sons of God, bring praise and worship unto our 
Lady. Let Mary arise, and let all her enemies be 
scattered. How amiable are thy dwellings, O Lady of 
hosts ! It is a good thing to give thanks, and confess 
to the Virgin, and to sing praises to her glory. Praise 
the Virgin, O my soul, and all that is in me praise and 
glorify her holy name. Praise our Lady in her holiness ; 
praise her in her virtues and miracles ; praise her, ye 
assembly of apostles ; praise her, ye choirs of patriarchs 
and prophets; praise her, ye army of martyrs ; praise 
her, ye crowds of doctors and confessors ; praise her, 
ye company of virgins and chaste ones ; praise her, ye 
orders of monks and anchorites : let every thing that 
hath breath praise our Lady !" What is this but the 
acme of idolatry ? The litany to the Virgin is regu- 
larly included in the Popish books of devotion in 
England, under the title of " The Litany of our blessed 
Lady of Loretto." 

I am sure, my dear children, it has been very difficult 
for you to restrain feelings of horror at the reading of 
such statements ; and it is natural to inquire, how the 
Romanists can vindicate themselves from the charge of 
the grossest idolatry. They attempt to do this by 
stating that a distinction is made by them between the 



WORSHIP OF THE VIRGIN. 217 

reverence and honour offered to a creature and the 
worship that is due alone to God, and that these, 
which are essentially distinct, are never confounded. 
The assertion thus made cannot, however, be esta- 
blished ; it is not only at variance with all just reason- 
ing, but with numerous and incontrovertible facts. To 
take an analogous case : suppose certain phrases were 
adopted in the ordinary business of life, and a stranger 
were told that on some occasions they meant that a 
bargain was completed, and on others that it was given 
up ; would he not be convinced of the absolute impos- 
sibility of precision in such circumstances, and of 
settling with accuracy what was intended to be done ? 
A piece of money, sometimes reckoned at the value of a 
farthing, and at others at that of five pounds, would 
inevitably lead to numberless mistakes. Common 
sense dictates, that the meaning of terms in the one 
instance, and the worth of the coin in the other, should 
be accurately determined ; and that it is only as this is 
done that they can be properly employed. When, 
therefore, we are told, that the same tributes offered to 
Romish saints and to God, are nicely adjusted according 
to the respective claims of those to whom they are 
presented, we have a practice asserted without a parallel 



218 



WORSHIP OF THE VIRGIN. 



in ordinary life, and even directly opposed to its most 
common conclusions. 

Besides, does not reason suggest, that if the departed 
are to be addressed by those who remain on earth, 
that they have powers far above the range of merely 
human beings ? If prayer is offered to St. Anthony, or 
St. Laurence, is it not assumed, that they can hear and 
relieve ? And as it may be presented from the ice-bound 
shores of Greenland, and also at the same time, from the 
arid fields of India, and at any moment of our lives, is 
there not the ascription of omnipresence, omniscience, 
and of independent, if not almighty power, to the per- 
sonage thus supplicated ? Such a conclusion cannot be 
evaded. The Romish church enjoins such prayers, and 
is accountable for all the evils from which they are 
inseparable, and for the common belief which is en- 
couraged, rather than repressed. 

Utterly absurd is the pretence, that there are two 
kinds of worship ; calling that which is given to God, 
latria, and that which is given to the saints, dulia. 
This is an arbitrary use of the terms, which, in the 
Greek language, are employed promiscuously, to ex- 
press services performed to God or to man. When they 
tell us, therefore, that they worship God with latria, and 



WORSHIP OF THE VIRGIN. 



219 



the saints with dulia, they tell us nothing but what any 
other two words in the Greek language would have 
expressed equally well ; namely, that they do not give 
precisely the same kind of worship to both. But 
whatever distinction be made in theory, the multitude 
make none in practice. The saints are honoured as 
highly as God, and in fact more so, as infinitely more 
prayers are addressed to them than to the Supreme 
Being, and without any reference to the Almighty in 
the words thus uttered. 

Still further, not only are Divine attributes ascribed 
to creatures, but to representations of them in pictures 
and images. The Romish books contain a prayer, 
ordered to be addressed to the sacred and miraculous 
picture of St. Veronica, which is as follows : " Conduct 
us, O thou blessed figure, to our proper home, where 
we may behold the pure face of Christ." A foot of St. 
Peter's statue in his great cathedral at Rome has been 
worn considerably by the kisses of those who kneel and 
salute it whenever they pass. 

In the church of St. Mary of Impruneta, near 
Florence, there is a picture of the Virgin, which is 
profoundly venerated throughout Tuscany, and is 
carried in procession through the streets of the city, 
attended by the prince, the nobility, the magistrates, 



220 



APPEAL TO SCRIPTURE. 



and the clergy, whenever any peculiar danger arises. 
Records, confirmed by public inscriptions, are shown 
to prove that each procession has been productive of 
benefits, one of which was the ceasing of a pestilence. 
Thus an inscription was set up in a church at Florence, 
about a century ago, in the following words : " There is 
no one who can be saved, O most holy Virgin, but 
through thee : there is no one who can be delivered 
from evils, but through thee : there is no one from whom 
we can obtain mercy, but through thee. Alary opens 
her bosom of mercy to all, so that the whole universe 
receives out of her fulness ; the captive, redemption ; 
the sick, health ; the afflicted, comfort ; the sinner, 
pardon ; the just, grace ; the angels, joy ; the whole 
Trinity, glory !" 

In vain is it, therefore, to say, that the Virgin or her 
image are used merely to aid devotion ; they are actu- 
ally and alike its objects : they receive the honour due 
alone to God, who hath said, "I am the Lord: that 
is my name : and my glory will I not give to another, 
neither my praise to graven images," Isa. xlii. 8. 

Such an invocation of saints and angels is, therefore, 
expressly prohibited in the word of God. Romanists, it 
is true, appeal to the Scriptures in its behalf, but they 
do so without effect. Thus they cite the conduct of 



APPEAL TO SCRIPTURE. 221. 

Abraham and Lot, with other patriarchs and prophets, 
who bowed down their faces to the ground before the 
angels that appeared to them, but this bending or pros- 
tration of the body was, and still is, in many countries, 
the usual mark of respect and honour to persons of 
dignity, and is totally distinct from the offering of reli- 
gious worship ; and in most of the instances it is clear 
that the heavenly Being was the angel of the covenant, 
the second Person of the Holy Trinity, assuming a 
visible form. The inspired record bears not the slightest 
trace of any worship of merely created angels, and it 
was expressly rebuked and refused, when offered by the 
apostle John, as I shall presently mention, on these 
occasions. 

The case of Jacob, when he exclaimed, in reference 
to Ephraim and Manasseh, " The God which fed me all 
my life long unto this day, the Angel which redeemed 
me from all evil, bless the lads," Gen, xlviii. 16, is no 
more in point. The Being who fed him all his life 
long, and redeemed him from all evil, could only be his 
God. Thus the same patriarch says, after wrestling 
with an angel, " I have seen God face to face, and my 
life is preserved," Gen. xxxii. 30 ; and in reference to 
the same fact, the language of Hosea is, "By his strength 
he had power with God : yea, he had power over the 



222 



APPEAL TO SCRIPTURE. 



angel, and prevailed," Hos. xii. 34. It may also be re- 
marked, that when Elijah was about to be taken by a 
chariot of fire into heaven, he desired Elisha, if he had 
any favour to implore, to ask it before he was taken 
from him, 2 Kings ii. 9 ; thus clearly intimating, that 
when he rose to the innumerable company of angels, it 
would be too late to prefer a request. 

Other facts are equally indisputable. As Peter was 
entering the house of the Roman centurion, " Cornelius 
met him, and fell down at his feet, and worshipped him. 
But Peter took him up, saying, Stand up ; I myself also 
am a man," Acts x. 25, 26 ; clearly proving that such 
honour was, in his case, totally inadmissible. In like 
manner, when the people of Lystra, full of amazement at 
the healing of a cripple, said, " The gods are come down 
to us in the likeness of men. And they called Barnabas, 
Jupiter ; and Paul, Mercurius, because he was the chief 
speaker. Then the priest of Jupiter, which was before their 
city, brought oxen and garlands unto the gates, and 
would have done sacrifice with the people. Which when 
the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard of, they rent their 
clothes, and ran in among the people, crying out, and 
saying, Sirs, w r hy do ye these things ? We also are 
men of like passions with you, and preach unto you 
that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living 



APPEAL TO SCRIPTURE. 



223 



God," Acts xiv. 11 — 15. And, if possible, a still 
stronger case is stated by the beloved disciple, when he 
says, in reference to some of the visions of the Apoca- 
lypse : " I John saw these things, and heard them. 
And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship 
before the feet of the angel which showed me these 
things. Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not : 
for I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren the 
prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this 
book : worship God," Rev. xxii. 8, 9. 

Lucifer said, " I will ascend above the heights of the 
clouds ; I will be like the Most High ;" but he fell as 
lightning from heaven. The prince of Tyre is repre- 
sented as exclaiming, ' ( I am a god, I sit in the seat 
of God ;" and he was hurled from his proud exaltation, 
while all around was made utterly desolate. A fear of 
judgment might well, then, deter a creature from accu- 
mulating the guilt of an offence at once so vain and so 
impious. Moses and Aaron sinned at Meribah, when 
they implied that a power like that which could work a 
miracle was their own, as they said, "Must we fetch 
you water out of this rock?" Has not the bold blas- 
phemy of Papal superstition invoked indignation like 
that which fell upon Herod, when he was " eaten with 
worms," because he was elated with the flattery, " It is 



224 



THE SECOND COMMANDMENT. 



the voice of a god, and not of a man," and gave not God 
the glory ? We may fully believe that it has done so, 
though God may not have seen it good to send tokens 
of displeasure by the like openly manifest judgments. 

A prohibition of all creature and image worship was 
included in the Divine law, as engraven on the tables 
of stone, and delivered to Moses on Mount Sinai. As 
the first command requires us to worship none but God, 
so the second forbids us to make " any graven image, or 
any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or 
that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters 
under the earth," and also our falling down to render 
any of them homage. And yet, notwithstanding this 
express prohibition, observe the following fact, as given 
by the Rev. J. J. Clark : — 

" The cathedral, called the Duomo, or Santa Maria 
del Fiore, is a Tuscan-Gothic edifice, built in the 
thirteenth century. It is a huge pile, striking the spec- 
tator with astonishment at its size, rather than with the 
grandeur or harmony of its proportions. It is nearly as 
large as St. Peter's at Rome. The exterior is incrusted 
with black and white marble ; the windows are of 
stained glass. The interior of the church is dark and 
gloomy. It is admirably calculated to produce upon a 
sensitive mind a deep and superstitious effect. A long 



THE SECOND COMMANDMENT. 



225 



line of immense pillars separate the aisles from the 
nave ; and directly under the centre of the dome is the 
choir. The tribune is surrounded with a balustrade and 
pillars, designed by Michael Angelo. Near this, upon 
a throne, is a statue that filled me with horror. It is a 
representation of the Eternal God ! I had frequently 
before seen paintings intended to represent each of the 
Persons in the sacred Trinity ; but this was the first 
instance in which I had seen in a Christian temple an 
attempt to carve the image of the Supreme Being in 
stone. The view of it struck me with horror. A 
plainer violation of the second command could not 
occur." 

How, then, do Romanists treat the opposition of the 
word of God to such practices ? They put the first 
and second commandments together, so that the one 
against an irreverent use of the Divine name is the 
second, and that which we call the fourth is the third ; 
and then to make up the number ten, they divide the 
last commandment into two. Here, however, a fresh 
difficulty might have occurred. For had it been usual 
in the Romanists 5 catechism, to write out each command 
in full, the sentence against idolatry would still have 
been pronounced, and it would have been seen at once 
that the Scriptures prohibited what the church required. 



226 



THE SECOND COMMANDMENT. 



But as it was customary to insert in their "books of 
instruction only the first sentence of each command, 
that against image worship was easily removed from 
many catechisms, and that without the knowledge of 
the people. 

A copy of the Divine law thus mutilated, was the 
only one printed in the manuals of the Romish church 
prior to the Reformation. The second command was 
left out of the office for the Virgin Mary, printed by 
order of Pope Pius v. at Salamanca in 1588, and also 
of the English office, printed at Antwerp in 1658. At 
length, the controversy with the Protestants compelled 
the Romanists to admit it ; and so it appears in the 
abstract of the Douay Catechism, printed in London in 
1811; but the two commandments, though at full length, 
are united as one, and the word " adore " is substituted 
for " bow down." 

Still, what could not be done well in England, could 
be accomplished in the sister island, and accordingly, 
the commandments appear in Butler's Catechism, printed 
in Dublin in the same year, and more used than any 
other of the same description, as follows : — 

1. I am the Lord thy God, thou shalt have no 
strange gods before me. 

2. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy 
God in vain. 



THE SIN OF IMAGE WORSHIP. 



227 



3. Remember that thou keep holy the sabbath day. 

4. Honour thy father and mother. 

5. Thou shalt not kill. 

6. Thou shalt not commit adultery. 

7. Thou shalt not steal. 

8. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy 
neighbour. 

9. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife. 

10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's goods. 
The commandments are printed in a like mutilated 

and summary form, in many popular books of devotion 
used in England. 

One fact, if it stood entirely alone, would utterly con- 
demn all such practices. The Israelites made a golden 
calf, not, as some have supposed, imitating the Egypt- 
ians in the worship of Apis, for after it was formed, they 
recognised it as " the gods " who had brought them up 
out of the land of bondage. Aaron, too, built an altar 
before it, and proclaimed on the morrow a feast to the 
only true God Jehovah. Yet, on this occasion, their 
guilt was very great, and their punishment memorable. 
And their sin consisted, not in adopting the idolatrous 
worship of a heathen deity, but in setting up a symbol- 
ical and forbidden representation of the Most High, and 
introducing into his worship some of the abominations 
Q 2 



228 



THE SIX OF IMAGE WORSHIP. 



practised by heathens. Jeroboam, moreover, is held 
forth as the man that made Israel to sin, not by com- 
pelling them to forsake the worship of Jehovah, bnt by 
setting up two golden calves in Bethel and Dan, which 
drew them aside from the service of Him who " dwelt 
between the cherubim," and which ultimately became 
the objects of idolatrous veneration. 



LETTER X. 



THE DOCTRINE OF PURGATORY — MEANS BY WHICH IT IS KEPT 
BEFORE THE MIND — ITS OPPOSITION TO DIVINE TRUTH. 

Among the miserable sophistries with which Popery 
abounds, is the doctrine of purgatory, which I now 
proceed to notice. The tenet is sometimes set forth in 
the following manner. " After the fall of man from 
original righteousness, he could not enter into the 
presence of God till the sacrifice of Christ was con- 
summated. Many died, however, who were good men, 
and whose spirits would rise to a state of happiness ; 
thousands of the wicked died also, whose spirits would 
sink into misery : these transactions would take place, 
too, while multitudes were still living ; and therefore it 
follows, that God was living in heaven, many were 
living on earth, the wicked were suffering in hell, and 
the righteous were at the same time, in a fourth place. 



230 



PURGATORY. 



If, then, there was a fourth place, a middle state between 
heaven and hell, prior to the coming of Christ, what 
proof is there that it is destroyed ? There is none. To 
this, then, the church of Rome gives the name of 
purgatory/'' 

It would be difficult to conceive a more wretched 
mode of arguing than this ; all is obviously mere as- 
sumption, and begging the question, instead of proving 
the assertion; and yet a state thus totally imaginary, 
is frequently and prominently presented to the view. 
Innumerable little crosses and little chapels, for in- 
stance, line the way from Chamonix, in Switzerland, 
to the rich and broad vale of St. Martin, bordered by 
lofty mountains and forests of pine. Over them are 
placards respecting indulgences for saying credos, ave- 
marias, and paternosters. Some of these stations were 
erected avowedly for the benefit of souls in purgatory ; 
and are inscribed with appeals to the sympathy of the 
passing traveller, on behalf of those who are supposed 
to be its wretched inmates. 

In France, the stranger may unexpectedly arrive, as 
I have done, at a cemetery of very interesting appear- 
ance. It calls up the declaration, that " in the garden 
was a sepulchre." Such abodes of the dead contain 
many handsome tombs, and are planted with evergreens 



PURGATORY. 



231 



and flowers. On some of the railings, placed about 
them, chaplets of flowers are suspended; some wither- 
ing, and others fresh, as if recently brought thither by 
one of the bereaved. But even here superstition is 
strikingly apparent. The graves of the French are 
usually surmounted with crosses of wood and iron, some- 
times eight or ten feet high, and the clusters of them 
strike at once on the view as the cemetery is approached. 
Upon almost all of them the inscription may be observed, 
" Priez pour le repos de son ame" — Pray for the repose 
of his (or her) soul, Nor is it uncommon for persons 
to be observed kneeling on or near the grave of one of 
the departed, in obedience to this charge, and with the 
view — vain, indeed — of hastening the escape of the spirit 
to the regions of the blessed. 

Other instances might easily be given. Thus, the 
visitor may enter a church on the continent, during the 
performance of the funeral service. On such occasions, 
the altars are covered with black screens, having skulls 
and cross bones painted upon them ; the coffin is placed 
in the middle aisle, with the smoke of incense rising up 
over it, from a vessel on the floor, while around it many 
lighted tapers are placed. Sometimes the officers of 
the church appear in funeral attire at the high altar : 
and at others, they may be seen surrounding the bier 



232 



PURGATORY. 



of the departed. The number of lights appears to depend, 
like the attire of the priesthood, on the rank and wealth 
of the deceased. In one funeral I witnessed, a line of 
soldiers was formed on each side of the coffin, through 
nearly the entire length of the church ; and it struck me 
as not a little remarkable, that in the midst of the 
mass, and that too repeatedly, the voice of an officer 
was heard directing the military movements of the men, 
whose muskets, as brought to the ground, jarred the 
stones of the aisle on which they were standing. A 
salver, to receive offerings for further masses for the 
deceased, is generally presented, not only to the bereaved, 
but to all present. But common as such offerings are, 
it appears they are not very costly. I have watched 
attentively, more than once, persons of respectable 
appearance, examine their purse with some difficulty on 
the approach of the priest, and then drop in a single 
sous — a coin which in England would be a halfpenny ! 

To mention a similar case : — On entering the gar- 
den attached to the church of the Dominicans at Ant- 
werp, the eye is caught by one of those singular 
contrivances of superstition, called Calvaries. In the 
corner of the area, at the end of the path leading across 
it, rock is piled upon rock to a great height, in rude 
and artificial, yet imposing grandeur, and statues of pro- 



MASSES FOR THE DEAD. 233 

phets, apostles, and saints are ranged around. On the 
top of the rocks is a representation of the Saviour upon 
the cross ; below is another of an angel receiving, in a 
chalice, the blood as it flows from his side ; and beneath 
the level of the ground, an image of Christ, pale and 
death-like, appears in the sepulchre. In a gloomy 
recess to the left are the figures of wretched beings, 
with the most ghastly expression of countenance, shut 
into a place of torment by massy bars, and writhing in 
agony in the midst of flames. The object of all such 
representations is to excite compassion, and to raise 
contributions to pay the priests for saying masses, in 
which the names of the departed are to be privately 
mentioned by the priest, and which it is supposed, 
when enough are said, will help the souls from purga- 
tory. In reference to this imposition, some other curious 
facts may yet be stated. 

Thus, in some monastic establishments in England, 
the altar, placed on the right or left hand side, and 
dedicated to the Virgin Mary, is considered a privileged 
altar, from the pope having granted an indulgence, so 
that every person who celebrates mass upon it, with the 
design of obtaining an indulgence, will obtain one of 
ten, twenty, or perhaps a hundred days for every such 
service. 



234 



MASSES FOR THE DEAD. 



If the prior — the head of the institution — has re- 
ceived an intimation of the death of any individual, it is 
announced either after dinner, or after supper ; when 
each of 4 4 the religious," as they are called, is directed 
to say a certain number of offices, and priests a certain 
number of masses, determined by the nearness or re- 
moteness of the connexion existing between the de- 
ceased and the monastery. Sometimes a considerable 
sum, (for instance, sixty pounds,) has been sent for this 
purpose ; if, therefore, there be ten priests in the monas- 
tery, the following order may be issued by the prior, on 
his rising, " Let each priest say ten masses, as soon as 

possible, for the repose of the soul of , a patron (or 

patroness) of the order." In such announcements, 
however, special care is taken that a word may not be 
uttered as to the sum of money received. All such 
donations are concealed, also, from those without — ex- 
terns, as they are denominated — as scrupulously as 
possible. Yet to this hour they are frequent and large. 

A short prayer is sometimes added at matins, in 
these establishments ; and this occurs when an office is 
about to be recited, with any particular intention ; that 
is, as papists say, that the service may benefit an indi- 
vidual ; for instance, by obtaining safety in a journey, 
promoting the welfare of a deceased friend or relation, 



MASSES TOR THE DEAD. 



235 



or by diminishing the term of his remaining in purga- 
tory. In this way, a Romish priest has received money 
from twenty persons, in sums varying from two shillings 
and sixpence to a pound for each mass, to be said for 
the repose of a friend, a child, a husband, or a wife. But 
as he might find he had more masses for the dead than 
he could conveniently pass through, he sends a trifling 
sum to a retired priest in a monastery, with the mes- 
sage, " Say so many masses for my intention." Ac- 
cording to this plan, if he has received twenty pounds 
for twenty masses for the dead, he perhaps sends five 
pounds to the inmate of the institution ; and the masses 
he offers "with an intention," are held to be of equal 
importance and value with those presented by the priest 
who thus engages his services ; while the two agents in 
this engagement alike receive a pecuniary benefit ! 

In the same way the permission of the pope has 
been granted, so that if a priest were paid for ten thou- 
sand masses, which he could not possibly repeat, he may 
say one, with the intention of its being equal to a hun- 
dred or more, and thus rapidly clear off his engagement ! 
These are indeed wretched subterfuges ; but, doubtless, 
departed spirits are as much benefited by their neglect, 
as they would be were the number of masses that 
are purchased actually gone through. 



236 



INDULGENCES. 



You have already been told, my dear children, that 
the sale of indulgences aroused the spirit of Luther ; 
but it is equally true that the traffic has been carried 
on in later times, and it is so even now. In the year 
1709, a Bristol privateer captured a vessel from Spain, 
on her way to America, having on board upwards of 
three millions of indulgences, to be sold at various 
prices, from twenty pence to the poor, to eleven pounds 
to the rich. In the year 1800, a Spanish ship was cap- 
tured by Admiral Harvey, near the coast of South 
America, in which were some large bales of paper, valued 
in her books at £7,500. On examination they proved 
to be made up of large sheets of paper, some printed in 
Spanish, and others in Latin, but all bearing the seals 
of ecclesiastical courts in Spain or at Rome. There 
were also indulgences for various sins mentioned in the 
Roman Catholic rubric, and for permission to eat flesh 
on fasting days, with the price marked on each, varying 
from half-a-dollar, to seven dollars. Some Dutch mer- 
chants at Tortola bought the whole for £200, hoping 
to introduce them among the Spaniards of South 
America, and to clear an immense profit thereby. 

"I was surprised to find,'' says a traveller, " scarcely 
a church in Rome that did not hold up at the door the 
tempting inscription ' Indulgenzia plenaria ' — plenary 



INDULGENCES. 



237 



indulgences. Two hundred days' indulgence I thought 
a great reward for every kiss bestowed upon the great 
black cross in the Colosseum ; but that is nothing to 
the indulgences for ten, twenty, and even thirty thou- 
sand years that may be bought, at an exorbitant rate, 
in many of the churches/' Nor are such purchases 
limited to them. The ecclesiastical history of France 
records, in a long series, the indulgences granted by 
various popes, of a plenary remission of all sin, and 
that for thousands of years, for certain prescribed ser- 
vices. By whom, it may be asked, can these be avail- 
able I Bellarmine, the great champion of the Popish 
cause, after mentioning some of the most atrocious of- 
fences which can be committed, adds, i; Without doubt, 
the popes had respect to such as these, when they 
gave indulgences for ten or twenty thousand years ;"' 
thus, in fact, holding out exemption from punishment 
for the greatest crimes. 

It has been acutely said, "We are told, that 6 it is 
easier for a camel to go into the eye of a needle, than for 
a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven ;' but, 
at Rome, at least, it would seem to be difficult, nay, 
impossible, to keep a rich man out." Equally power- 
ful is money, in professedly spiritual matters, wherever 
the influence of Popery extends : nor does it shrink 



238 



INDULGENCES. 



from owning its efficacy ; thus, at the close of a list of 
sums for which certain supposed advantages might he 
obtained, it is added : — " Note well : graces and dis- 
pensations of this kind are not conceded to the poor ; 
because they have no means, therefore they cannot be 
comforted ! " 

The offers thus avowedly made, of spiritual good, at 
the pecuniary cost of the applicant, or in consequence 
of some exercise or service through which he passes, 
plainly appears to be directly opposed to the language 
of the gospel. " Ho, every one that thirsteth, come 
ye to the waters, and he that hath no money ; come 
ye, buy, and eat ; yea, come, buy wine and milk with- 
out money and without price." " Being justified freely 
by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ 
Jesus." " The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And 
let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is 
athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the 
water of life freely." 

What a contrast is presented by these terms to those 
in which indulgences are offered ! Nor can it be 
doubted that they have been productive of great evil. 
According to the testimony of Bellarmine, men who 
were guilty every moment of their lives, of perjury and 
blasphemy, received pardon from the pope and his 



PAGAN ORIGIN OF PURGATORY. 239 



clergy, and indulgences, too, for thousands of years. 
Surely, then, this practice must operate as an encou- 
ragement, and even as a permission, to commit sin ! 

To all statements in defence of this false doctrine, 
there is a satisfactory reply : — The doctrine of purgatory 
has no foundation in the Bible, and therefore to treat 
of deliverance from it, is like dealing with the shadow 
of a shade. And whatever tends to obscure or conceal 
the doctrine of the punishment of sin, as stated in the 
word of God, impairs or sets aside one of the means 
to be used for bringing men to repentance. Yet this 
is done by the church of Rome. He who thinks he 
can obtain absolution on confession to a priest, and 
in addition, an indulgence for the remission of tem- 
poral punishment, can have little or nothing to fear, 
though he lives as he pleases, and his pleasure is that 
of unchecked depravity. 

Purgatory, like many parts of the Romish system, is 
derived from heathenism. It was held by many in the 
ancient world, that all creatures are parts of the Su- 
preme Being, separated indeed for a time, but destined 
to return, like drops into their parent ocean, and only 
hindered on their way by the stains contracted from the 
pollution of matter. These stains were considered to 
be worn out by the action of fire and the power of 



240 



PAGAN ORIGIN OF PURGATORY. 



pain — a notion which is apparent in the doctrine of 
purgatory. 

The language of Anchises to his son convevs the 
same sentiment : — 

" Xor, e'en when death dissolves the mortal ties, 
The gross contagion with the body dies : 
But on the soul the growth of sensual years, 
By nature's strict necessity, inheres. 
Hence are they sentenced to atoning pains; 
Till just infliction shall erase their stains. 
Some are suspended on the viewless wind : 
Some deep in roaring waters are confined; 
And some are exercised with fire's sharp power : 
Each soul must tarry its expecting hour. 
Then are we sent to range Elysium's sweets : 
And few we are who gain those blissful seats, 
Till, his full orb complete, long toiling Time 
Has cleansed the foulness of concreted crime; 
And left, in all its native radiance bright, 
The ethereal sense of elemental light." * 

In his dialogue, entitled " Phaedo," Plato affirms, that 
when men enter into the invisible state, they are judged. 
Those who are neither truly virtuous, nor consum- 
mately wicked, are said to be carried away to the lake 
Acheron, where having suffered the punishment of their 
unjust deeds, they are dismissed, and then receive the 
reward of their goods actions : those who, on account of 



* The Eneis of Virgil, by Svmmons. 



PAGAN ORIGIN OF PURGATORY. 



241 



their great sins, are incurable, are cast into Tartarus, 
from whence they shall never escape ; while those who 
have committed curable sins, and have repented, must 
also fall into Tartarus, from which, after a certain time, 
they will be delivered. 

In both these passages we have a very exact descrip- 
tion of the purgatory of Papists ; the curable and 
incurable offences of Plato, according precisely with 
the venial and mortal sins of the Romish church. By 
mortal sins they understand those which are worthy of 
eternal death ; but these are few, and some of these are 
explained away by a subtle casuistry. All other sins 
are venial or pardonable ; expiated, in part, by penances 
here, and partly by the pains of purgatory hereafter. 
After all, the notion of purgatory is gross and pal- 
pably false. Its abettors admit the spirituality of the 
soul, and yet they suppose it can be purified by fire, 
just as if it were a material substance ! This singular 
imagination overturns the fabric. Purgatory is physi- 
cally impossible. 

Pagans considered money to be .necessary in these 
circumstances, and thus they put a piece of money 
under the tongue of each of the deceased — the fare of 
Charon for ferrying the departed spirits across the river 
Styx ; and profitable indeed have Romanists made the 

R 



242 



PAGAN ORIGIN" OF PURGATORY. 



fable in not asking for an obelus, but by cherishing a 
rapacity which knows no bounds. 

Let us take the evidence once more of the Rev. D. 
O'Croly. " The doctrine of purgatory has an intimate 
connexion with the traffic in masses. The piety of the 
living seeks to mitigate the sufferings of their departed 
friends. This piety is carefully nurtured by the in- 
terested clergy. The feast of All Souls, November 2nd, 
is the critical period for the performance of this neigh- 
bourly and philanthropic duty. Xothing, then, is left 
untried to interest the faithful in behalf of the suffering 
souls in purgatory, who, it is said, can be most efficaci- 
ously relieved, or extricated altogether, by the aid of 
masses, which are at once impetratory, propitiatory, 
and expiatory. This is a portion of the 2nd of No- 
vember doctrine, and which is inculcated by every 
means that avaricious ingenuity can devise." 

It is unnecessary to add more respecting a doctrine 
so evidently a tissue of falsehood, tending to yjroraote 
crime, and harden the heart ; and supplying, as it does, 
a most powerful engine for exerting their authority to 
the priesthood of Rome. 



LETTER XI. 



NUNNERIES — THE ROMISH DOCTRINE OF MERIT UNSCRIPTURAL 
AND INJURIOUS OBJECT OF ENGLISH MONASTERIES. 

Having thus far proceeded in the accomplishment of 
the proposed task, it remains to exemplify still farther 
the spirit of Popery. One prominent feature presented 
by it is that of self-righteousness, and to a brief illus- 
tration of it the present letter shall be appropriated. It 
appears very strongly in the seclusion of women in 
cloisters or nunneries, under a profession of devotedness 
to a religious life. 

The entrance on this course is called " taking the veil;" 
and the unconscious victim, generally about fifteen years 
of age, is, in Spain, the object of special attention from 
the community that she prefers, who constantly address 
her by the name of " bride." Attired in a splendid 
dress, and decked with the jewels of all her family and 
friends, she takes public leave of them, visits on her 



244 



TAKING THE VEIL. 



way to the convent several other nunneries, to receive 
expressions of admiration from their inmates ; and even 
the crowd, as she passes, utter their blessings. As she 
approaches the church of her monastery, the priest who 
is to perform the ceremony, meets her at the door, and 
conducts her to the altar, amidst the sound of bells and 
musical instruments. Her dress as a nun is now blessed 
by the ecclesiastic, and after embracing her parents and 
nearest relatives, she is led to a small door next to the 
double grating, which separates the nuns' choir from 
the body of the church. A curtain is drawn while the 
abbess cuts off her hair, and strips her of all her worldly 
ornaments ; and, on its rernoval, she appears surrounded 
by the nuns, bearing lighted tapers, her face being 
covered with the veil, which is fixed on the head by a 
wreath of flowers. She afterwards appears behind the 
grating which separates the visitors from the inmates 
of the convent. In some instances the parting visit is 
omitted, and the sight of the novice in her veil is the 
last which for a year is allowed to her parents. On the 
day she takes the vows they see her again, but never to 
behold her more, unless, indeed, when she is laid in the 
grave. 

In some nunneries there is little or no rigour, 
apart from the loss of all personal freedom, whether 



CONVENT OF ST. JEAN. 



245 



bodily or mental ; but in others, young and delicate 
females are exposed to a life of privation and hardship. 
Their dress is a tunic of sackcloth, tied round the waist 
with a knotted rope. No linen is allowed, either for 
clothing or bedding ; its substitute is the coarsest 
woollen, even during the burning summers of the south 
of Spain. In winter, the only addition is a mantle of 
sackcloth, while their feet, without socks or stockings, 
but shod with sandals, are exposed to the piercing cold. 
A band of coarse linen, bound tight six or eight times 
round the head, is worn by the Capuchin nuns, in re- 
membrance, it is said, of the crown of thorns ; and this 
band is not allowed to be taken off, even in fever. 
Among these, all communication between parents and 
children ends in taking the vows. 

In France and other parts of the continent, nuns may 
often be observed, many of them assiduously engaged in 
teaching children, and visiting the sick : while some of 
the convents are frequently open to public inspection. 
Several friends of mine visited that of St. Jean, in Bruges, 
and to them the dress of the nuns presented an unaltered 
feature of the Romish dominion over mind and conscience. 
In the gallery of the gloomy chapel, which is paved with 
black and white marble, the inmates were chanting in 
a manner which sounded dolorous and servile, and any 



246 



RIGOUR OF CONVENTS. 



thing but the accent of happy, cheerful piety. Inglis, an 
interesting traveller in many countries, on describing a 
visit he paid to a convent in Spain, says : — " I was pre- 
sented with wine and cake. I shall never forget the 
taste of that cake ; it seemed to me to taste of the 
tomb — crumbling in one's hand like something touched 
by the finger of decay." And the feeling of which he 
was conscious would, doubtless, be that of many. 

That there is often much to endure in such circum- 
stances, might be shown by many facts. Thus a 
writer, himself once high in rank as an ecclesiastic of 
the church of Rome, but afterwards enlightened to see 
its errors, says : — " I had a sister, amiable and good in 
an inferior degree. ... At the age of twenty, she left 
an infirm mother to the care of servants and strangers, 
and shut herself up in a convent, where she was not 
allowed to see even the nearest relations. With a deli- 
cate frame, requiring every indulgence to support it in 
health, she embraced a rule which denied her the com- 
forts of the lowest class of society. A coarse woollen 
frock fretted her skin : her feet had no covering but 
that of shoes open at the toes, that they might expose 
them to the cold of a brick floor : a couch of bare 
planks was her bed, and an unfurnished cell her dwell- 
ing. Disease soon filled her conscience with fears ; and 



FEARFUL CATASTROPHE. 



247 



I had often to endure the torture of witnessing her 
agonies at the confessional. I left her when I quitted 
Spain, dying much too slowly for her only chance of 
relief. I wept bitterly for her loss two years after, yet 
I could not be so cruel as to wish her alive." 

" In the province of Biscay," says Ingiis, " females 
profess at a very early age ; their noviciate generally 
commences about fifteen, and at the expiration of a year 
they take the veil. A nun must carry into the convent 
about 30,000 reals, (300/.) and to La Merced and 
Santa Monica, considerably more. I ascertained, from 
a source of the most authentic kind, that three-fourths 
of the nuns who take the veil at this early age, die of a 
decline within four years." He thinks the climate and 
situation of some of the convents account, in part, for 
this mortality, but adds, " I should incline to attribute 
a greater influence to causes more immediately referable 
to the unhappy and unnatural condition of those who 
are shut out from the common privileges, hopes, and 
enjoyments of their kind." 

At a convent in the north of Italy, a fearful catas- 
trophe occurred some years ago. A father determined 
to compel his daughter to take the veil, to which she 
was strongly disinclined; but as she was treated with 
great brutality at home, she at length consented ; yet no 



243 



ENGLISH NUNNERIES. 



sooner had she pronounced her vows than she requested 
a private interview with him at the grate of the convent ; 
and being left alone with him, killed herself before his 
eyes, and cursed him with her latest breath. This, how- 
ever, is but one of the many narratives of horror which 
are well authenticated in connexion with a seclusion so 
unnatural and injurious. 

All idea of escape is carefully excluded. In 
Italy the bondage of a convent is rarely broken 
through. And why ? A woman who persisted in 
returning to the world, would be visited with the 
severest reprehension ; her family, considering them- 
selves dishonoured, would refuse to receive her ; her 
friends and acquaintance would scarcely associate with 
her ; the finger of scorn would point to her : — she must 
take the vows, or die. Nor should the fact be over- 
looked, that, according to her superstitious teachers, she 
would by so doing endanger her salvation, or render it 
impossible. Fear supplies a powerful motive to even a 
hated incarceration, and often the only one. 

In England there are at present many convents. 
Mrs. Mary Wiseman, a nun of the Flemish convent of 
St. Ursula, in Louvain, established a house of this kind 
in the year 1609. Its inmates were governed by a 
prioress. At the French invasion, in 1794, they fled 



ENGLISH NUNNERIES. 



249 



out of the Low Countries, and were received by a friend 
in England, till a residence was hired at Amesbury in 
Wiltshire, where they resided till the year 1800. Since 
then they have dwelt at Spettisbury House, in Dorset- 
shire. Another convent is at Cannington, near Bridge- 
water ; and there are others at Salford, near Evesham ; 
Liskeard, in Cornwall ; Princethorpe, near Leamington ; 
TVestbury, near Bristol ; and at Taunton, in Somerset- 
shire. 

It will be naturally asked, after such an enumeration, 
which might be much extended, What is the great in- 
ducement to this prison-like life ? To this it may be 
replied, that the chief reason avowed, is derived from 
the imagination, that such a course is meritorious in the 
sight of God. Vain and delusive, indeed, is such a hope. 
They who have believed in God are to be 4 1 careful to 
maintain £ood works but of these a life of quietude 
or endurance in a convent, is not likely to be pro- 
ductive. For works to be good, they must be right in 
principle, and spring from love to God ; and though 
there may be cases where this is exhibited in such 
circumstances, it is assuredly not owing to any human 
devices, for "the love of God is shed abroad in our 
hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.'"' There 
is abundant reason, however, to think, that this love is 



250 THE DOCTRINE OE MERIT REFUTED. 

but rarely possessed by the inmates of convents, of "whom 
it mav generally be said, that " thev being ignorant of 
God's righteousness, and going about to establish their 
own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the 
righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the 
law for righteousness to every one that belie veth." 
"Without faith it is impossible to please God:'' in 
the exercise of this principle the whole trust of the 
soul is fixed in Christ ; and in direct contrast to it, 
is the conduct of all who look for the enjoyment 
of the Divine favour to their own doings and suf- 
ferings. 

The doctrine of merit, as held by the Roman church, 
is calculated to fill the mind with pride and presump- 
tion, yet the influence of it appears continually. On a 
tombstone at Cork, is the following inscription: — 
" Sacred to the memory of the benevolent Edward 
Molloy. He employed the wealth of this world only to 
secure the riches of the next : and leaving a balance of 
merit in the book of life, he made Heaven a debtor of 
mercy ! " Such is a specimen of popish supererogation, 
of which there are innumerable instances : but a far 
different spirit is discovered by that individual who, 
receiving the testimony of the gospel, is anxious to 
adorn it in all things. Cowper has well conveyed the 



FAITH IN THE ONLY REDEEMER. 



251 



feelings of such a one, when describing him as saying, 
as he beholds the Redeemer : — 

" Since the dear hour that brought me to thy foot, 
And cut up all my follies by the root, 
I never trusted in an arm but thine, 
Nor hoped but in thy righteousness divine ; 
My prayers and alms, imperfect and defiled, 
Were but the feeble efforts of a child; 
Howe'er performed, it -was their brightest part, 
That they proceeded from a grateful heart. 
Cleansed in thine own all-purifying blood, 
Forgive their evil, and accept their good ; 
I cast them at thy feet— my only plea 
Is what it was — dependance upon thee." 

It is equally certain, that while relying entirely on 
the mediation of Christ, for works to be good, they 
must accord with the only unerring rule — the re- 
vealed will of God. But in what part of the Scriptures 
is the life of nuns described and enjoined ? Assuredly, 
no trace of it can be found in the inspired volume. 
There the range of female duty appears, not in seclusion, 
but in society ; and all who abandon the engagements 
of life for the cloister and the cell, do so alike in defiance 
of the arrangements of the God of nature, and the 
doctrines, precepts, and examples of Divine revelation. 



LETTER XII. 



ENGLISH MONASTERIES — THE DESIGNS OF ROMANISTS — THE 
OFFICERS, INMATES, AND APARTMENTS OF THE BENEDICTINES 
THE PRACTICE OF DUPLICITY. 

It has been already perceived, that the course taken by- 
nuns is unsupported by the oracles of God ; and in show- 
ing that this is also the case with those of the other sex, 
who incur similar obligations, some remarkable features 
of "the man of sin " will yet be fully exposed. Various 
orders of monks long since settled in this country. The 
dissolution of their institutions, however, began in the 
year 1312, and by the 27th and other acts of Henry 
viii., more than three thousand were completely sup- 
pressed. The motive to this was not, it must be 
admitted, altogether a pure one. The houses and wealth 
of the monks were confiscated, indeed partly on account 
of the crimes of individuals, but chiefly to break the 
power of the monastic orders, and to gratify the cupidity 



MONASTERIES. 



253 



of the monarch and his courtiers. Cardinal Wolsey had set 
him an example, by suppressing several monasteries to 
apply the revenues to his public establishments. But 
what first urged Henry against the monks, was their 
determined opposition to his authority, and their efforts 
to keep him a vassal to the pope, even preaching re- 
bellion for this purpose. Now, what papists had meted 
to others, was, in some small degree, measured to them 
again ; the spoilers of kings became to others a spoil. 
Over the monastic institutions that remained, a con- 
siderable change passed. Prior to the Reformation, the 
monks of Glastonbury and other places took their 
vows, and spent the remainder of their lives in their 
respective edifices. Some of them were ordained priests 
for the services of the monastery, but others were 
merely its inmates, assisting in its choir, and engaged 
in domestic and manual occupations. 

So adverse, however, were the circumstances of the 
Benedictine monks during the latter years of Henry viii. 
and Edward vi., that out of this once flourishing fra- 
ternity only one remained. The last and solitary link 
of a long extended chain, was Robert Buckley, alias 
Father Sebert, then at the age of ninety, and moreover 
the inmate of a prison. To him five or six young men 
applied, and received at his hands the habit of the 



254 



MONASTERIES. 



Benedictine order through the window of his dungeon. 
They then proceeded to Douay, where an English 
Benedictine monastery and college had been founded 
by Cardinal Pole, a maternal cousin of Henry vim — 
" a man/' says Sharon Turner, " whose combination of 
talents, sensitivity, and venom, reminds us of the 
Hindoo tradition, that there is a dangerous serpent 
amidst the jungles, that bears in his forehead a beautiful 
ruby." His insinuating qualities greatly contributed to 
the success of his pestilential influence. 

In various parts of the country, numerous relics of 
ancient monastic institutions may still be traced. Of 
the many that formerly flourished in Canterbury, for 
example, the principal was the abbey founded in the 
beginning of the seventh century by Augustine, in 
conjunction with king Ethelbert, for monks of the 
Benedictine order. The remains are a gateway en- 
trance — a beautiful specimen of the decorated style 
of English architecture, with two embattled octagonal 
turrets, adorned with canopied niches, and orna- 
mented with bands, mouldings, and cornices ; between 
these turrets is the entrance through a finely pointed 
arch, in which are the original wooden doors, richly 
carved. At present there are three institutions for 
monks in England ; of which two belong to the Bene- 



VICARS APOSTOLIC. 



255 



dictines : one at Downside, twelve miles from Bath, 
and the other at Ampleforth, eight miles from York ; 
the other belonging to the Jesuits. The design con- 
templated by these establishments is worthy of par- 
ticular attention, for their inmates are intended, after 
a preparatory course, to cast around them the seeds 
of Popery, and they will stand ready to thrust in the 
sickle when the harvest has grown up and is ripe. 

The fact is, that England is not, like Spain, or 
France, or Italy, a Roman Catholic hierarchy, daring 
openly to assume authority over all other men : here 
this corrupt system, though rapidly gaining ground is 
not paramount ; it has till lately been quite in abey- 
ance ; and consequently, the bishops are styled vicars 
apostolic : that is, receiving their commissions from 
the pope, they are considered as missionaries from the 
court of Rome among infidels or unbelievers, and 
hence they take their titles from foreign places. Ac- 
cordingly, the vicar apostolic of the western district 
is styled the Bishop of Siga, and the vicar apostolic of 
the midland district, the Bishop of Cambysopolis. In 
Ireland, which is a Roman Catholic hierarchy, and where 
Popery has always been dominant, the titles of its pre- 
lates are derived from the places where their functions 
are exercised, as the Archbishop of Dublin, or the 



256 DESIGNS OF ROMANISTS. 

Bishop of Meath. Another point of difference is ma- 
nifest between a vicar apostolic and a bishop in his own 
right ; the former can be removed at the pope's plea- 
sure, but the latter cannot be, except on being convicted 
of gross immorality. 

Whatever may be the views entertained by others, it 
is unquestionably the object of Papists to regain their 
dominion which in England has been lost ; and they 
expect speedily to do so. This will appear from one fact, 
but little if at all known to Protestants. The endow- 
ments of several bishoprics were originally the property 
of the Benedictines, and taken from them at the time 
of the Reformation. As, therefore, they consider them 
to have been unlawfully wrested from their hands, they 
regularly appoint officers to these bishoprics, and to all 
the other monastic property extant, at the chapter of their 
order, which is held every four years. The disposition 
sometimes pretended by the pope, and other members 
of the Romish church, to conform so far as possible to 
the wishes of those with whom they are at issue, may 
be traced to the hope of ascendency, which is still 
tenaciously cherished. Were the fears of many, there- 
fore, to be realized, and England, by the decision of its 
rulers, to return to Popery, each of these officers ap- 
pointed by the last arrangement, would proceed at once 



DESIGNS OE ROMANISTS. 



257 



to his allotted station. In this convulsion to others, 
no difficulty would arise to them; no question would 
remain to be proposed, no collision of claims would 
occur ; but according to plans steadily pursued from 
the Reformation to the present time, the whole ecclesi- 
astical property, however reluctantly surrendered by 
Protestants, would be simultaneously, and as a matter 
of course, appropriated by Papists. Nothing less than 
the absolute supremacy of their church, in things tem- 
poral as well as spiritual, will satisfy Romanists. 

Meanwhile, they cherish hope that it will ultimately 
be theirs, and refuse no effort likely to secure its realiza- 
tion. Others may be lukewarm, or heartless, or in- 
different, but they are always watchful, zealous, and 
persevering. Their avowed intention is, by missionary 
labour, to bring back the sheep who have strayed from 
the fold of the Romish church ; and for this, monastic 
institutions are sustained, under the direction of the 
vicars apostolic already mentioned, who reside in this 
country as the representatives of the pope. The primary 
field of labour for English Benedictines is at home. 
On them it devolves to celebrate mass, to teach the 
doctrines of their church in public lectures, to hear con- 
fession, to pronounce absolution, and to administer the 
Romish sacraments of baptism, penance, the eucharist, 

s 



258 



THE JESUITS. 



matrimony, and extreme unction, in private and public 
Popish establishments, whether rising from recent effort, 
or vacated by the inroads of death. 

An officer, called the president, has equal authority 
over the nuns and monks of the same order. He is 
supreme, both as it regards the priors of monasteries 
and the abbesses of convents, as well as the provincials, 
each of whom is a senior priest presiding over the regu- 
lars who may reside within his province. To him it 
belongs to see that an adequate pecuniary provision is 
made for each priest. A new chapel cannot be erected 
within his district without his permission ; nor can any 
material change be effected but in accordance with his 
pleasure. He holds office in the general chapter, and 
if found efficient may be re-chosen every four years 
during life. A provincial is generally supplied with 
funds for the use of his district, and on these a young 
priest going on the mission will frequently draw. 

The Jesuits, disciples of Ignatius Loyola, another 
celebrated order of the Romish church, it may here 
be observed, have a college at Stonyhurst, in Lanca- 
shire ; and according to their engagements, they stand 
ready for service in any part of the earth, at the 
command of the pope, to the upholding of whose 
authority they are especially devoted. With this fra- 



OFFICERS OF A MONASTERY. 259 

ternity, it should be remarked, originated " the Society 
for propagating the Faith," whose missionaries com- 
passed sea and land, and encountered hardship and 
danger in every form to gain accessions to the dominion 
of Rome. Wherever they found churches avowedly 
Christian, they demanded immediate submission to the 
papal power, and to hesitate or refuse was, if possible, 
punished as rebellion against authority. In China and 
Japan, and wherever they were unprotected, they prac- 
tised successfully the arts of insinuation ; in other parts 
where power could be exercised, as in Paraguay, they 
made converts at the point of the sword. In their 
case the corrupt maxim has been carried out to its ut- 
most possible extent — ' 4 The end sanctifies the means." 
Never, my dear children, may this be admitted by us. 
We are taught not to do evil that even good may come. 
May we always track with undeviating step, the plain 
path of truth and righteousness. 

A monastic institution, even in England, includes a 
considerable establishment. First in rank within it is the 
prior, for at present there are no abbots here. Once pos- 
sessed of the latter distinction, it is borne by the indi- 
vidual for life ; but a prior is elected for each institu- 
tion every four years, and at the end of his term, if 
not approved, his office may be terminated for ever, 
s 2 



260 OFFICERS OF A MONASTERY. 

He is taken from the rank of senior priests, and his 
authority in the monastery is great, there being no ap- 
peal from it, except to an officer without the establish- 
ment, called the president, or from the president to the 
pope, or from the pope to a general council. On him 
it devolves, with the advice of his counsellors — other 
leading members of the institution — to direct and con- 
trol all its affairs, both external and internal. In his 
own room he is always ready to be consulted by the 
senior or junior brethren, to give counsel, to listen to 
complaints, and to correct what are deemed abuses. 
He appoints the various officers to manage the religious 
and secular concerns of the institution, applies to the 
bishop to administer " the sacrament of holy orders " 
to any who are studying in his monastery, is responsible 
to a general chapter for the state of the establishment 
over which he presides, and receives its approbation 
or censure according to his discharge or neglect of his 
duties. 

Next in station is the sub-prior, who incurs a similar 
responsibility : he is the general assistant of the prior 
in his various engagements, and his locum tenens in all 
cases of absence, either in visiting his friends, or oc- 
casionally administering offices in other monasteries, or 
convents. 



OFFICERS OF A MONASTERY. 



261 



To them succeed the following officers, described in 
the order of their standing : — The junior master, fre- 
quently the professor of theology, who has to watch 
over the morals, give attention to public offices and 
the studies of the junior brethren, (the rank of the 
inmates for the service of the Romish church, till they 
have completed their theological course,) and especially 
to promote, it is said, their spiritual interests ; to him 
each of them has daily to go to ask for his morning 
collation, except it be a fast ; and with him, as well as 
the prior, he has to consult as to any absence from 
studies. 

The procurator provides for the whole establishment; 
he buys all that is required, receives all that is paid, 
sells whatever is to be disposed of, arranges with the 
stock-brokers any monies in the funds, transacts se- 
cular business with merchants both at home and 
abroad, and keeps in his possession all clothes and 
food, books and papers. He is distinguished from 
other officers of the institution, in the general per- 
mission he has to go, at any time, to any part of the 
monastic estates ; to a distance, even for business, he 
cannot go without permission of the prior. The ac- 
counts of the monastery in his hands, are subject to 
the examination of the prior ; and every four years to 
that of the president and general chapter. 



262 



OFFICERS OF A MONASTERY. 



Ill monasteries, where there is a college, a prefect 
has charge of the boys, and is, in fact, head master of 
their school. On him it rests to watch over them in 
the hours of recreation, to preside at their table during 
the time of dinner, to superintend their studies, to 
guard their morals, to inflict any corporeal punishment, 
and to sleep among them in the first or second dor- 
mitory. He always walks about this apartment, after 
their retirement to rest, for two hours, that no conver- 
sation may take place ; without his permission, no boy 
can enter it during the day ; he attends night prayers, 
pronounces his benediction, conducts the collegiate 
students to their dormitory ; and after this, no one can 
leave it without his acquiescence. In the morning, he 
gives one signal for them to rise out of bed and to dress, 
and a second for them all to go down into the study 
room ; when, on their assembling, he commences 
prayers. Should a boy be absent from them, he is 
accountable to the prefect ; and for the omission the 
prefect is responsible to the prior : and if any com- 
plaint is made by a parent, as to any mental or moral 
deficiency in the education he superintends, he is 
amenable to a council of the house, which is formed of 
its principal officers. 

The sub-prefect superintends the boys in his ab- 
sence, presides at their table at breakfast and supper, 



OFFICERS OF A MONASTERY. 



2G3 



has charge of them in the second, or minor dormi- 
tory, in which he sleeps, and takes the place of the 
prefect in his absence, incurring by his office a similar 
responsibility. 

The sacristan has charge of all the sacred ves- 
sels and vestments ; and on him it devolves to have 
wine and candles prepared for the altar, to vest the 
officers for their appearance before it, to attend to 
all the arrangements of the chapel, to take care that 
a lamp is continually burning before the tabernacle ; and 
when perpetual adoration is observed, to have the con- 
secrated host constantly exposed, and persons, by two 
and two, watching before it during the day and night ; 
to see that candles are regularly supplied, and also to 
show visitors and strangers what is committed to his 
trust. 

The guest-master, whose duty is to receive strangers, 
to provide for their meals and rest, and to pay them 
the utmost attention and courtesy during their stay ; 
which, as mere strangers, is allowed to continue for three 
days and nights* 

The cantor, or chaunter, superintends the choirs, 
gives directions as to the tunes in which the psalms 
shall be chanted, orders the public singing during the 
celebration of mass, commences each of the hymns and 



264 



INMATES OF A MONASTERY. 



psalms ; and is, in fact, the leader of the choral band, 
and responsible for the proper celebration of this part 
of the monastic service. 

The confessors are those appointed by the prior, or 
a general council of the house, to receive the confes- 
sions of its inmates ; nor is any one allowed to go to 
any other priest in this character, without the permis- 
sion of the prior. Other persons have authority to 
receive the confessions of those that live out of the 
monastery, as well as the servants of the establishment. 

The other inmates of the institution are " the 
brethren," who have passed through the profession — 
a ceremony like that of nuns when taking the veil — and 
who are, in consequence, denominated " the religious ;" 
and those who are preparing for this distinction, called 
" novices." It may here be also remarked, that the bre- 
thren are divided into two choirs, the first and the 
second ; in the former, the prior presides, and in the 
latter, the sub-prior. The choirs are, however, of 
equal rank, the whole number of the brethren being 
divided between them ; but there must be in each 
one or more of " the professed" to constitute it a re- 
gular choir, which it would not be, if formed of novices 
alone. 

As curiosity will naturally be felt to know something 



INTERIOR OF A MONASTERY. 



265 



of the interior of such an institution, it may be observed, 
that an English Benedictine monastery is a strong, 
stable, spacious edifice, including a centre and two 
wings ; the former being appropriated to the chapel, 
and the latter to the various apartments of the esta- 
blishment. Sometimes rooms for guests appear in 
the front, while gardens, shrubberies, and pleasure 
grounds serve as a promenade and a recreation for 
all. The nunneries of this country may be men- 
tioned in similar terms. The circumstances of their 
inmates, at the time of the French revolution, were 
precisely the same as those of the monks already men- 
tioned ; they were natives of this country, bringing 
to it as much of their property as they could secure, 
and establishing themselves in various places. 

On the door of the monastery being opened, the hall 
appears like that of other Popish edifices, from its 
statues of saints ; at the upper end of it may be ob- 
served one to the person to whom the institution is 
dedicated, by whose name it is called, and whose pro- 
tection is daily solicited. On the left, is one of the 
founder of the order, as St. Benedict, with whom ori- 
ginated that of the Benedictines ; and on the right is a 
statue of the Virgin Mary. 

Proceeding to the library, we enter a spacious and 



266 



INTERIOR OF A MONASTERY. 



lofty room, containing, in appropriate compartments, 
copies of the Scriptures, in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, 
in various editions, with numerous commentaries ; the 
works of the Greek and Roman fathers ; the decrees 
of popes, from Gregory i. to Gregory xvi ; the ca- 
nons of councils, from that of Nice to that of Trent ; 
the volumes of ancient and modern theology, includ- 
ing Romanist, Protestant, Mohammedan, and Arian 
polemical writers ; together with a large assemblage 
of others in every department of literature and science ; 
and the whole apparatus of natural philosophy. In 
some instances, there are various literary curiosities, 
with others of a different character. 

The refectory is a commodious and well-lighted 
apartment, sometimes adorned with statues or paint- 
ings of saints, anchorets, and hermits ; appropriated 
entirely to the taking of meals. The members of the 
Romanist church, it may be remarked, are bound 
to keep certain days, called " days of obligation," as 
the Circumcision, (1st of January,) the Epiphany, (6th 
of January,) and the Annunciation, (25th of March,) 
more strictly than even the Lord's day. What a sub- 
stitution is this of the institutions of man for the ap- 
pointment of God ! 

At the head of the refectory is a recess, with a 



66 LIVES OF THE SAINTS." 



267 



reading desk, where the hebdomadarian, as each of 
" the brethren" holding the office for a week, is called, 
reads at dinner-time a chapter from the Old Testa- 
ment ; and at supper, one from the New Testament. 
When the portion of Scripture is ended, he waits for 
a moment, and if the prior gives one tap on the table, 
it is the signal for the reading to be continued from 
Roman Catholic biography or ecclesiastical history, 
when the whole meal is taken in silence. Should the 
prior give two taps, they are the signal for conversation, 
when the reader retires from his desk, and takes his 
seat at the table. Silence during the hour of dinner 
is generally observed three days in the week ; and at 
supper it is almost invariable. 

In the " Lives of the Saints," a work of high repute 
among Papists, and of which much use is made dur- 
ing meals, we constantly discover the common and 
awful error of the Romish church, that suffering is 
highly meritorious. To take merely one case, as a 
specimen of a multitude, we may refer to that of St. 
Macarius. It is said, that for seven years together, he 
lived only on raw herbs and pulse ; and for the three 
following years, contented himself withfbur or five ounces 
of bread a day, and consumed only one little vessel of 
oil in a year. When the monks were preparing to 



268 



" LIVES OF THE SAINTS." 



keep Lent, he is described as standing in a private 
corner, and passing the whole time without eating, 
except a few green cabbage leaves on Sundays ! Hap- 
pening one day to kill a gnat inadvertently, which had 
been biting him in his cell, he is represented as re- 
flecting that he had lost an opportunity of suffering, 
and as devising a singular compensation. Hastening 
forth, he went to the marshes of Scete, abounding with 
great flies, the stings of which pierce even wild boars ; 
and there he remained six months, exposed to their 
fury, and " to such a degree was his whole body dis- 
figured by them with sores and swellings, that when 
he returned, he w r as only to be known by his voice." 
It is scarcely necessary to remark, that the principle 
on w 7 hich such statements are made, or on which any 
such sufferings are endured, is egregiously wrong : it 
is assumed that they are acceptable before God ; but 
how can this be, when the Most High has not required 
them ; when, in fact, they are opposed to many parts of 
Divine revelation ; and when their direct tendency is to 
set aside the only w r ay of access and salvation — the 
mediation of our Lord and Saviour ? 

Prodigies abound in such publications. Optatus re- 
lates, that a bottle of holy oil was thrown out of a 
window by certain persons, in order to break it ; but 



"lives of the saints." 



269 



though it was cast from a very high place, yet, being 
supported by angels, it fell on the stones uninjured. 
A blind man touching the bier on which lay the bones 
of Saints Geroasius and Protasius with a handkerchief, 
and then applying it to his eyes, is described as re- 
ceiving his sight. Prudentius affirms that a white dove 
was seen to come out of the mouth of St. Eulalia, and 
to wing its way upward when that martyr expired ; at 
which prodigy, he says, the executioners were so terri- 
fied, that they fled, and left the body. On similar 
authority it is said, that the apostle Peter, in a vision, 
comforted St. Agatha, healed all her wounds after she 
was cruelly tortured, and filled her dungeon with 
heavenly light ! 

Such is a small sample of a work which a long string 
of archbishops and bishops of the Romish church pub- 
licly sanction, and of which they affirm, that they are 
glad to express their ardent desire, that a copy of it 
were placed in the hands of every family of the nume- 
rous people committed to their care. " We presume to 
say," is their language, " that the - Lives of the Saints ' 
is an historical supplement to the Old and New Testa- 
ments ; an illustration of all that God has revealed, 
and of all the sanctity which his divine grace has pro- 
duced among the children of men." On this work a 



270 



THE CELL. 



very different verdict might justly be pronounced, its 
direct tendency being to produce and increase trie 
superstition and infidelity which are so often apparent 
in the garb of Popery. True piety is originated and 
sustained by a totally different instrumentality — the 
truth as it is in Jesus — which such publications are in- 
tended to set entirely aside. 

We pass, now, from the refectory, where works of 
this kind are constantly read ; to the calefactory, so 
called from its having a fire from November to March. 
It is a large room, in which " the brethren " are required 
to meet at least twice a day, after dinner and supper ; at 
the close of which, the prior, followed by them in regu- 
lar order, proceeds thither at once. Here is the place 
of conversation and recreation, and of intercourse be- 
tween the monastic community and strangers : here, too, 
the newspapers are read, and curiosity, but rarely re- 
pressed, is gratified, by learning the state of the coun- 
try, and of the world at large. 

Each of the professed has a cell, a small plain room, 
containing a bedstead, with a wool mattress, a pillow, 
blankets, sheets, and a coverlid ; a chest of drawers, a 
desk, two chairs, and a few other trifling articles, and 
always a crucifix, and pictures of the Virgin Mary and 
other saints. All are confined to their cells during the 



PERSONAL INDULGENCES, 



271 



day, except when engaged in the chapel at meals, or 
passing the hours of recreation after dinner or after 
supper. In these places silence is preserved, nor can 
any one go into the cell of another, except on pain of 
mortal sin ! When the last service of the day is con- 
cluded all must retire to their cells, every light must be 
extinguished before ten o'clock, and not a sound must 
be heard until the appointed officer calls them to com- 
mence the service of the next morning at half-past 
four. 

Having adverted to the feasts of the refectory, it 
may be stated, that the calefactory is the scene of 
other indulgences. Here the person last professed, 
and who is called the semi- abbot, waits on his bre- 
thren, keeps up the fire, snuffs the candles, asks per- 
mission of the prior for wine or punch, and distri- 
butes either or both when his plea is successful. Here, 
however, ingenuity is sometimes required ; but if a good 
excuse is not at hand, one of an inferior kind is resorted 
to. Thus, a brother of one of the professed has a child 
born, and he will give punch to celebrate the birth, from 
money which he has in the hands of the procurator 
which in some cases may be considerable ; sometimes, 
guests will proffer it from certain intelligible hints which 
are thrown out ; and invariably the request is urged when 



272 



PERSONAL INDULGENCES. 



a member of the establishment is visiting the monastery 
from his mission. Should he be too poor to give it, 
some member of the house, having more money, will 
supply it, while he, in his own name, obtains permission 
for the indulgence. 

Admitted to these scenes of sensual gratification, it 
may probably be asked, How does it accord with the vow 
of poverty which is taken by monks, in connexion with 
that of chastity and obedience ? Professing to have 
nothing, how is it that, so far as the gratification of the 
palate extends, they have every thing ? The answer is, 
that a nice distinction is drawn between holy poverty 
and beggarly poverty ; — the one involving abject desti- 
tution, the other according with the phrase, with which 
all the monks of this kingdom are familiar, " It is our 
duty to get all we can, and to keep it." 

A print may often be observed in the shops of Lon- 
don, representing a large present of fish, flesh, and fowl 
to the inmates of Bolton Abbey, on which the receiver 
looks with no common complacency ; and precisely the 
same feeling is discoverable by many of his successors. 
Indulgence is nominally given up, but practically 
retained. 

Here Popery appears the same as it was in former 
days ; and the similarity will continually strike on the 



PERSONAL INDULGENCES. 



273 



mind as we consider this an ti- christian system. But 
before we pause again, it may be remarked, that the 
evasions so commonly resorted to, in reference to. what 
is accounted sacred, as well as to what is secular, is 
totally opposed to Christian truth, and prepares for any 
devices of the father of lies. Let us aim to follow in 
the steps of one to whom the testimony was borne, 
" Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile ! " 



T 



LETTER XIII. 



INDUCEMENTS TO A MONASTIC LIFE — HISTORY OF A MONK — THE 
POSTULANT — THE NOVICE — THE PROFESSION. 

The surprise naturally felt at the increase of the mo- 
nastic order, and at its continued reinforcement when 
weakened by defection or death, will be allayed by the 
following considerations. Roman Catholic parents are 
solicitous, like others, for what they consider the ad- 
vancement of their children. This many suppose will 
be secured by engaging them in the service of the 
Romish church. Superstition has long invested such 
engagements, in their minds, with peculiar attractions. 
It is maintained, that when, in celebrating the Eucharist, 
the priest utters what are called the " words of con- 
secration," the wafer and the wine are actually changed 
into the body and blood, soul and Divinity of our Lord 
Jesus Christ ; and the power to do this, as it is con- 
sidered, or, properly speaking, the opportunity of pre- 



INTRODUCTION TO A MONASTERY. 



275 



tending to do so, is often eagerly coveted, and esteemed 
highly honourable. 

A knowledge of the superstitious reverence with 
which Romish priests are often regarded, will exhibit 
one reason for parents desiring that their children 
should rise to this rank. Accordingly, in the hope 
that some of them have what is termed " a vocation of 
God," the parent sends them to the school which is 
connected with the monastery, where association is 
favourable, as in other cases, to the desired impression. 
Here, amidst many in similar circumstances, they not 
only pass through the ordinary routine of education, 
hut also a frequent trial of the temper ; and when a 
disposition appears to obedience and self-control, whe- 
ther constitutional or superinduced, the hope of the 
parent is encouraged by those in authority, and the 
youth is urged onwards. Only conceive of the ex- 
ercises of the mind being restrained from the earliest 
time within very narrow limits, and of certain objects 
only being kept before it, and no wonder will be felt 
that the desired result is frequently obtained. 

Other cases occur, in which this is the consequence 
of the false but flattering statements addressed to the 
young, and by which proselytes have been made from 
the ranks of Protestants. To hear, from time to time, 

T 2 



276 FALSE BUT FLATTERING REPRESENTATIONS. 



of entire exemption from worldly care, by which mul- 
titudes are harassed, bowed down to the earth, and 
even borne to the grave — of the ample and abundant 
supply of every necessity without effort or cost — of 
constant association with persons of similar character 
and pursuit, reciprocating all that is kind, and gener- 
ous, and noble — and of securing these great advan- 
tages, merely by a resignation of the will, and atten- 
tion to the simple routine of prescribed study, has on 
some minds considerable effect. It is true, as we shall 
hereafter perceive, that there will be much to excite 
repugnance, and produce suffering ; but all such cir- 
cumstances are scrupulously concealed. The hook is 
hidden by a glittering bait, the chain by a rich and 
flowing robe. Thus the attractions of this world are 
exhibited ; for ambition will hear that the youth who 
enters his noviciate, may rise to the rank of a pro- 
fessor, a prior, a cardinal, or a pope ; while other feel- 
ings are excited as the attention is directed to the 
priestly office, with the assurance that the merit accumu- 
lated by all acts of self-control, mortification, and sacri- 
fice, shall receive a proportionate and eternal reward. 
It is needless to dwell here on the delusion that is thus 
practised. In a worldly point of view, it will be found 
that the prizes of this lottery are few compared with its 



THE POSTULANT. 



blanks ; while to promise happiness or glory in heaven 
on the ground of any such services, is to reject the full 
and plain testimony of revelation, and to incur the tre- 
mendous guilt of making God a liar, 1 John v. 10. 

The process preparatory to becoming a monk or 
friar, differs in different countries. I will describe it 
as practised in our own land, where, of course, every 
thing is as much as possible avoided that can give an 
unfavourable impression of this mode of life. As you 
will perceive, great attention is paid to keep out of 
sight those gross and objectionable features of the 
monastic state, which appear with little disguise in 
countries where the public mind is subjugated to the 
church of Rome, and where the priesthood and monastic 
orders are accounted a superior race of men to their 
fellow mortals, and not subject to the same laws and 
regulations. 

When any one is to be prepared for the " English 
mission," as it is called, he goes, on entering a Bene- 
dictine monastery, according to the invariable rule, 
into the collegiate part of it, and gives his attention to 
classical literature. Having made there some progress, 
he asks permission of the prior to take the habit of the 
order, and thus become a postulant. Several months 
now elapse, when the prior and council of the house, 



278 



THE POSTULANT. 



formed of its other chief officers, determine to accede 
to his request, and accordingly intimate that he is to 
prepare for receiving the hahit, by " a retreat," which 
is described as a period spent in " silence, prayer, the 
examination of conscience, and also in the general con- 
fession of the sins of the life." 

To assist in this exercise, there are tables of sins, 
which may be committed against the ten com- 
mandments of the moral law, and also against the re- 
quirements of the Romish church. He is charged to 
confess the nature of his sins ; not only external acts, 
but thoughts and feelings, suggestions and desires, and 
also the number of his several transgressions. Unable, 
however, to do this — for Popery is full of subtleties and 
subterfuges — he is directed to state how long he has 
lived in the practice of any iniquity, and then to 
guess its frequency in a week or a year. Having 
thus arrived at some conclusion — a correct one is 
impossible, and an erroneous one, to any but a Papist, 
condemns itself — he goes to one of the confessors 
appointed by the prior, or a general council of the 
house to receive confessions, while any other is abso- 
lutely forbidden — thus they secure to themselves the 
possession of every secret of their inmates ; he receives 
some advice, has a penance enjoined, and when abso- 



THE CHAPTER-HOUSE. 



279 



lution upon its performance is granted, he is admitted 
to the communion of the Romish church. 

His preparation for the habit being now completed, 
the event is notified to " the brethren," who assemble 
in the chapter-house, a room near the chapel, w T hich 
is used for religious conferences and other purposes, 
at the upper end of which the prior is seated. An of- 
ficer of the house, called the novice-master, now leads 
him in ; when walking to the middle of the apartment, 
he prostrates himself in the presence of the prior, who 
immediately after gives a tap on the table, and as 
he rises from his knees, proposes the question, " Quod 
petis, f rater carissime ?" — What seekest thou, dearest 
brother? To this, he answers, " If it appears expedient 
to the Blessed Virgin, and to you, I desire to receive 
the habit, and to live under the rule of St. Benedict." 
The prior then proceeds to address him : he speaks 
of the difficulties attending a monastic life ; affirms 
the absolute necessity of entire resignation to the will 
of superiors, and of prompt and cheerful obedience 
to all their commands, without a moment's inquiry 
whether they are right or wrong ; and then expatiates 
on the importance of a moral course, in which he 
describes the virtue of humility, or rather of the entire 
prostration of the intellect and the conscience, as 



280 



THE CHAPTER- HOUSE. 



pre-eminent, which is the very chain and shackle of his 
system. 

At this requirement of implicit submission — to su- 
periors, be it observed, however great and ruinous their 
errors ; the substitution, in fact, of the authority of 
man for the authority of God, the very core of all anti- 
christian superstition — an ingenuous mind might at 
once be horrified, and refuse to advance, but the previous 
treatment passed through guards against the probability 
of such a result. The ceremony therefore proceeds. At 
the close of his address, the prior beckons to the postu- 
lant ; when, as he kneels in his presence, he asks what 
religious name he has chosen, or whom he has sought 
as his patron saint : he mentions one, (for instance, 
St. Francis,) on which, he calls him by the name of 
that saint, and puts on him the habit. This is a large 
round gown, with deep, full slee.ves, hanging to the 
knees, with a scapular, which is put over the head, and 
reaches to the feet both behind and before, and a hood 
with which the former may be covered. The postu- 
lant now kisses the hand of the prior for acceding to 
his request ; and, rising from the ground, receives from 
him a kiss on the cheek, by his applying one side of 
his face to a side of his own, and which is denominated 
" the kiss of peace." He then rises from his knees, 



THE NOVICE-MASTER, 



281 



gives to each, of " the brethren" a kiss in the same 
manner ; and at the dose of the ceremony, takes the 
name of a novice, and is conducted by the no- 
vice-master into the noviciate, when the inmates of 
the house come to congratulate him, and to wish 
him, what they call, erroneously indeed, " persevering 
grace." 

He now enters on a new scene, in an apartment 
where all in the same circumstances reside together, 
On the novice-master it devolves to try the tempers 
and dispositions of those under his care, in order, it 
is said, to know whether they have a calling of God 
to the monastic life. Xo one must pass through the 
gates without his permission, or being accompanied by 
one of the elder, or professed brethren. To such a 
one, a novice must not speak, except permitted : and 
he must be treated, together with every officer of the 
house, with the greatest deference and respect, 

As a novice, the individual has to rise at four in the 
morning, and to attend with the professed brethren the 
early service of the chapel : this lasts about two hours, 
when twenty-five minutes are allowed to make his 
bed, and arrange other matters in the novice's dor- 
mitorv. On the ringing of the bell for the morning 
collation, the master enters the noviciate : and taking 

1 1 o 



282 SCENES IN THE NOVICIATE. 

his seat, all of them fall on their knees in his presence, 
and proceed to confess any minor fault which is con- 
sidered as not amounting to a sin ; for every one de- 
scribed as a sin must be acknowledged at the con- 
fessional. Faults of this lesser kind are committed, 
when a novice speaks to one of the professed brethren 
during that morning, violates the law by which silence 
is imposed during certain hours, is vexed with one 
or more of his associates, or has been irritated by any 
penance enjoined on the previous clay. 

The " chapter of faults, as it is called, is followed 
by various penances. Should a novice display a want 
of kindness to his brethren, he may be required to 
clean their shoes during the whole of the year. If 
great delicacy of taste appears, something unpleasant 
is appointed ; or when the individual has asked, as 
is the general practice, whether he may take his morn- 
ing collation, he has been told that he may have for 
it a plate of snow. Or if the novice-master has ob- 
served any one help himself to more than the usual 
quantity, as to a larger piece of cheese, he will say 
perhaps, " O brother ! I think you are rather fond 
of cheese ; you will therefore be so kind as to do 
without any more for three months to come," 
The mortification may also be increased a day or two 



SCENES IX THE NOVICIATE. 



283 



after, by the master offering a piece of cheese to a 
novice under this prohibition ; when, should he at- 
tempt to take it, a penance will be enjoined, as that 
of going on his knees, and watching others while they 
partake of it, or prostrating himself for half an hour 
in the chapel — an act of degradation which prepares 
him for the performance of others. 

It may be supposed to be well, when the novices 
have no faults of which to accuse themselves ; but the 
master will then probably enjoin a penance for pride. 
Sometimes he will accuse them sarcastically of offences 
of which they have not been guilty ; and if these are 
denied, he will expatiate, in the same style, on their 
innocence, and order them to do penance for the want of 
humility, or the manifestation of self-will. 

Raillery, than which nothing more blunts the kindly 
feelings of the heart, is indeed a frequent means of 
mortification, and one often followed by what is still 
more trying. To give an instance : — The novices in turn 
make the fire in the noviciate ; and some, of course, 
are not at first very expert at this domestic occupation. 
This was the case with a brother named Bede, who, after 
studying for seventeen years in a different order, had to 
light the fire in the noviciate of a Benedictine monas- 
tery. He commenced operations by clearing out the 



284 



SCENES IN THE NOVICIATE. 



grate, but then lie formed a stratum of large lumps of 
coal, placed some sticks on this, covered them with 
shavings, heaped a quantity of ashes on each hob, put 
a small piece of lighted candle beneath the coal, and 
left the room. To his surprise, his failure was mani- 
fest on his return ; but other emotions succeeded when 
brother Bede was thus addressed by the novice-master : 
" Hey, brother ! how clever you are ! what a splendid 
fire ! It is fit, you see, for any purpose to which it 
can be applied. How greatly do we all enjoy its 
light and its warmth ! How clear and bright, too, 
you have made the grate ! Surely you are much in- 
debted to your mother, or some kind aunt, for your 
great skill. Successful indeed have they been in their 
instructions ! — Brother Bede, as a penance, you will 
prostrate to-day in the chapel for an hour." 

A still more offensive course is pursued, for the 
novice-master frequently obtains advantage of his pu- 
pils in unguarded moments. Speaking to any one, 
in the most familiar manner, and encouraging him to 
open his mind, he will notice expressions which fall 
from the lips without due thought, and turn them 3 when- 
ever a convenient opportunity occurs, against the unsus- 
pecting pupil. Sometimes, hard labour is required as 
a penance ; at others, what is absolutely ridiculous, and 



ENDURANCE OE SEVERITY. 



285 



therefore proportionately annoying. One novice was 
directed to plant a walking-stick in the earth, and to 
water it every day till it grew ; and other cases might 
be mentioned equally frivolous. 

Nor are instances wanting in which there is much 
severity. Any attempt at self-exculpation is imme- 
diately, and perhaps heavily punished, as by kneeling 
for half, or sometimes three-quarters of an hour ; with- 
out any support, which is often extremely painful. 
Sometimes the penance consists in the offender pros- 
trating himself at the door, for all the brethren to step 
over him, or kneeling to each of them as they come out 
of chapel, or acknowledging that he is a poor, wretched, 
guilty creature, with an entreaty of their prayers in his 
behalf. No doubt such treatment, at which every 
ingenuous mind, free from the fetters of gross super- 
stition, instinctively revolts, is likely to answer the re- 
quirements of a church which triumphs alike over the 
body and the mind, degrading the individual to a 
mere machine, to do nothing, or only its own work ; 
but it is manifestly opposed to the proper dignity of a 
responsible being, the true end of existence, the forma- 
tion of a holy character, and the promotion of the 
glory of God. 

With his full share of the trials alluded to, the 



286 TRAINING OF THE NOVICE. 

individual pursues his studies of the rule, or order of 
life, prescribed by St. Benedict. The Latin term for this 
is regula ; and hence every regular priest is a monk or 
friar belonging to some order, while a secular is not a 
monk, and does not belong to any. He is also em- 
ployed in reading what are called spiritual books, in 
examining his conscience, and in frequently repeating 
prayers, to ascertain, as he calls it, but in our view 
most improperly, what is the will of God. 

At the end of the first three months of his noviciate, 
the prior sends for " the brethren," and in their pre- 
sence the novice prostrates himself, asking their per- 
mission to persevere. If the prior has discovered any 
thing inimical in his spirit or conduct to the require- 
ments of the Romish church, he now states the fault, 
and enjoins a penance : and the novice has to repair 
to him again, and on bended knees ask pardon for his 
offences : should this not be the case, the request is 
granted, as a second application is at the end of six 
months, and also a third, about four months after. 

The stimulus to all this is the hope of being professed. 
The novice hears continually of the merit accruing from 
mortification ; he is told that all he endures will better 
prepare him for society, should profession be refused ; 
while, should this great object be gained, the path is 



TRAINING OF THE NOVICE. 



287 



fully opened to great honour on earth, and to great 
glory in heaven. It is declared that he is thus promot- 
ing the best interests of religion, and laying up a rich 
store for the world to come. Often does the novice- 
master quote the passage, <5 ' He which converteth a sinner 
from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, 
and shall hide a multitude of sins telling him, by a 
flagrant perversion of the word of God, that this is the 
multitude of his own sins, while " they that turn many 
to righteousness," he declares, by a perversion equally 
gross, " shall shine as the stars for ever and ever!" 

Meanwhile, much ignorance of his own system pre- 
vails ; he hears nothing of penances done by the pro- 
fessed : he supposes, indeed, that none are required, for 
the fact is subtlely concealed. Some doubts may arise 
in his mind as to different parts of the Roman Catholic 
system, but on mentioning them to the novice-master, 
he affirms that they are suggestions of Satan, and ought 
to prove that his vocation is of God ; while, in reality, 
they may accord with Divine truth, and be calculated to 
deter from its perversion and rejection. To such state- 
ments, however, it is added, that the novice has only to 
wait his passing through the theological course, when 
his objections will be fully obviated. But vain indeed 
are such promises. For a fair treatment of objections 



288 



COUNCIL OF THE MONASTERY. 



rising in a mind which retains only a portion of its 
natural ingenuousness, the novice may wait, but he will 
find, that his church has other and sturdier weapons to 
quiet them than statement and argument. 

It is the practice of an English monastery to dismiss 
a novice at the end of three or six months, when it is 
determined that he shall not be professed. When, 
however, it is intended that he shall be, he receives 
further advice as to the difficulties lying in his path ; 
and again the necessity of unreserved and unwavering 
obedience is urged, not only to his superiors for the 
time, but to their successors, as long as he shall live. 

On the assembling of a " council of the house," he is 
recommended by the novice-master as a proper person 
to be received into the order of St. Benedict. Each one 
of "the professed" is then separately called before the 
council to express his opinion of him ; such communica- 
tions being secret and confidential. The judgment thus 
pronounced being in his favour, it is decided that he 
shall be professed : but this is known to him only from 
the result. It may here be remarked, that the "general 
chapter," held every four years in England, devolves 
peculiar authority on an officer called the "president." 
To him, during the term of his power, every regular 
priest engaged in the service of the Popish church in this 



POPERY DESCRIBED. 



289 



country must yield implicit obedience, as well as all 
the ecclesiastical students in its monasteries. The prior 
consequently writes to the president for permission to 
profess the novice ; but in reference to this application, 
profound secresy is observed. Indeed, he is kept 
for many weeks in a state of painful suspense, without 
daring to mention his suspicions or doubts to any one, 
or to ask a question as to the probable issue. — But here 
we will once more pause : painful, and often disgusting, 
are the details of a monastic life, yet it is well to know 
what is occurring even in our own land, that our feelings 
and efforts may have the stimulus of fact, not of ima- 
gination. 

Whatever tends to throw light on the Romish system 
is of value. To use the words of the Rev. E. Bicker- 
steth : ' ' Popery has that wherewith it can meet every 
desire of the natural heart, and soothe every anxiety 
about the soul : for the literate, it has prodigious stores 
of learning ; for the illiterate, it has its images, pomps, 
and shows ; for the self-righteous, it has its innumerable 
ways of external service ; for the most devout, it has its 
unceasing prayers ; for the musician, it has the most 
exquisite chaunts ; for the painter, the most splendid 
efforts of human art ; for the imaginative, all the visions 
of fancy, its gloomy cloisters, lights, and processions, 



290 POPERY DESCRIBED. 

and incense, and beautiful churches with painted win- 
dows, and priests with splendid garments and varied 
dresses. To quiet the conscience, it has doctrines of 
human merit, and works of supererogation ; to alarm 
the indifferent, it has fears of purgatory ; to raise the 
priesthood, they can make a little flour and water into 
a god, and will themselves worship what they make. 
To give ease to the conscience of the man of the world, 
and the lover of pleasure, each sin has its indulgence 
and penance. All men at times are under fears of God's 
wrath ; their conscience is touched, they are in anxiety ; 
and at such times Popery comes in, and gives them a 
sop, that satisfies for the moment, and sends them into 
the sleep of death. It covers every lust, it calms every 
fear. It is the devil's cunning device of twelve hundred 
years' growth, for leading countless myriads to perdi- 
tion. Let us not be ignorant of his devices" 



LETTER XIV. 



THE NOVICIATE — THE PROFESSION SEVERITY EXERCISED — 

EXILE, THE PENALTY OF DISOBEDIENCE — CLOSE OF A PRIEST'S 
EARTHLY CAREER — PRACTICE OF CELIBACY. 

In the last Letter, a part of the Romish system was 
developed, by tracing the postulant and the novice 
through the various steps of his course ; it remains, 
therefore, to observe him when attaining the realization 
of his hopes, but which frequently issues in bitter 
disappointment. 

Informed that he may novr proceed, the novice-mas- 
ter directs the novice to enter his "retreat" — requiring, 
as before, eight days' silence. After the lapse of five 
days, and the making a general confession, he is 
called on by the prior, who inquires if he wishes still to 
persevere. On replying in the affirmative, he kneels 
in the presence of the professed brethren, and asks 
u 2 



292 



THE PROFESSION. 



their prayers. Trie time is then fixed for his profession 
to take place. 

On the morning of the day appointed, high mass is 
celebrated. As yet, his dress has been only the cast-off 
garments of some of the professed, these are now placed 
on one side of the altar ; and a new habit on the other, 
which, as the full monastic costume is not now worn in 
England, is merely a gown and cassock, nearly re- 
sembling those of the English universities. Led by 
the novice-master into the chapel, where the brethren are 
assembled, and prostrating himself in the presence of 
the prior, who is seated at the high altar, he gives him 
the usual signal to rise on his knees, and then proposes 
the question, 6 1 What do you want?'' He answers, 
" Permission to persevere in my holy resolutions." 
The prior, according to his system of ignorance, super- 
stition, and delusion, then addresses the novice on the 
trials of the monastic life, and expatiates on the pleasures 
resulting from the mortification of the senses, and from 
living in sacred seclusion, and also dwells on the rich 
compensation in heaven for all the discipline he will 
have to undergo. "Dost thou then," he continues, 
" notwithstanding all this, persevere ? " The novice 
answers, " Yes ;" and is then directed to read the form 
of profession in the Latin tongue, which has been 
already prepared. 



FORM OF PROFESSION. 



293 



A translation of this document is as follows : — "In 
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen, in the year 

of my nativity , on the day of , I brother 

- — — , of , in the county of , in England, pro- 
mise before God and his saints, stability, reformation of 
my manners, and obedience, according to the rule of 
our most holy father (St. Benedict,) under the very rev- 
erend , of the English congregation of the same 

order, our holy father the general president of the same 
order, and to his successors in this monastery of St. 

, in , in the county of , of the same con« 

gregation and order, in the presence of the very rev- 
erend ■ , prior of the monks of the same monastery, 

to the faith of which thing, this schedule or petition, 
written and undersigned with my hand, in the year and 
day of the month above added." Here is a solemn en- 
gagement of unreserved submission to human authority, 
which, with the Bible in our hands, it may be said none 
ought to exact, or if exacted, none ought to yield. 

As soon as the person being professed has read this 
form, the black pall — that which is used for funerals — 
is brought in, and spread on the ground before the altar ; 
on this he prostrates himself ; and the sides being 
thrown over him, he is hidden from the view of all pre- 
sent. The brethren now commence chaunting " the 



294 



THE VOW. 



Long Litany " — an appeal to the Father, the Son, and 
the Holy Spirit, for mercy on the person making this 
profession, and to the "Virgin Mary, to the angels, and 
to many saints and martyrs, virgins and confessors, 
imploring their prayers in his hehalf. At its conclusion 
he rises, proceeds to the left hand of the altar, on which 
the mass is still being offered, and there takes the oath 
of obedience to his superior and his successors for ever, 
and also of chastity and poverty. Placing his left hand 
on the crucifix, he signs his name in full to the oath 
he has taken, prefixing to it the declaration, " Tango 
crucem" — "I touch the cross." 

Immediately after this act, the recital of which is 
deeply painful, from a conviction that such vows are 
frequently broken, and that the consequences of keep- 
ing them are also fearful, the following vow is taken : — 

" I brother , in the place of ■ , in the county 

of , in England, promise, vow, and swear, before 

God and his saints, that I will go to the work of the 
English apostolic mission, and return again whenever 
and wherever the most reverend president of our con- 
gregation shall judge expedient, and shall command : I 
touch the cross." To this are appended the 

(Name of the professed.) — 

(Names of witnesses.) 



PROFESSION OF MONKS UNLAWFUL. 295 

The state of a slave has frequently called for the sighs 
and the tears of true philanthropy : are they not then 
demanded by the spectacle on which we are now look- 
ing ? Where can bondage be more complete ? Hence- 
forth the professed is the mere instrument of those to 
whom, whatever be their dictates, he has declared he 
will be, in body and in mind, entirely subject. 

The mass is now concluded, and he returns to the 
noviciate, to spend the remainder of that day, and the 
two following, in silence so profound, that he is for- 
bidden to hear his own voice, even in devotion. After 
three days have elapsed, he receives the wafer, or host 
of the sacrament, and is then conducted by the novice- 
master to the calefactory, where he is introduced to each 
of the assembled brethren, who having offered their 
congratulations, proceed to the prior, and ask relief 
from study for the whole monastery. 

Two facts should be remembered as to this act of pro- 
fession. One is, that since the year 1829, in which the 
Emancipation Bill was carried through Parliament, the 
profession of monks has been prohibited in England. 
Still it occurs, and sometimes every year ; the pre- 
caution being taken of performing the ceremony now 
described either during the night, or at an early hour 
in the morning, when only the initiated are present. 



296 



THE APPETITE FOR GAIN. 



The other fact is, that the sum paid by each individual, 
at or about the time of profession, is £600, though this 
is remitted, in some instances, from the hope that 
special service will be rendered to the Romish mission 
in England. Gold has, however, in all monasteries 
and nunneries a powerful attraction. Strong indeed 
must be the case that allows it to be declined. 

It might be supposed, that an appetite for gain would 
be satiated by the sum just mentioned, but still there 
is the cry, "Give, give;" for immediately after pro- 
fession, the individual is required, according to an in- 
variable rule, to resign, in a testamentary form, the 
whole of his property ; not only what he has, but what 
may be his at any future time ; property, in fact, 
whether afterwards arising from heirship, from gift, or 
from accumulation in the service of the mission, to the 
monastic establishment. As, however, it is against the 
English law to do so specifically, the plan is, to sur- 
render such property to two members of the Bene- 
dictine order, so that the professed is unable to make 
any gift, without rendering an account to the prior, or, 
in the prospect of death, to bequeath any thing he has 
possessed. 

Exorbitant as this requirement is, more still is 
demanded, — shame — shame that an intelligent and ac- 



THE BILL OF POVERTY. 



297 



countable being should ever yield it, for lie must tender 
to his president, every four years, a statement of all be 
lias received, what lie lias used, and how it was spent. 
So long, too, as he is the inmate of a monastery, he 
has to give in annually, " a bill of poverty," including 
all he has about his person, or in his cell, even to 
a pen, a nail, or a small piece of string ; and in such 
subjection is he to his superior, that the prior may 
demand his key whenever he thinks proper ! 

On being professed, he takes his station at the 
end of the choir of junior brethren, presided over by 
the sub-prior. The places at meals are occupied in the 
exact order of profession ; were, indeed, a boy of ten 
years of age to be professed in May, and a man of 
sixty in June, the former would have the precedence. 

The whole of the " Daily Office " now becomes 
binding upon him ; thenceforward it is regularly to be 
passed through under pain of mortal sin ; and in it are 
included the following services : — matins, the nocturnes, 
prime, the hours, and vespers. Matins was originally 
celebrated at midnight, and this order is still kept up 
in name. Each of the professed is called to it by the 
semi-abbot, the individual who has last passed through 
the ceremony lately described, at half-past four. This 
is done by a knock at the door of every cell, and the 



298 



THE DAILY OFFICE. 



salutation, " Benedicamus Domino " — " Let us praise 
the Lord ;" the answer given by the waking brother 
being, " Deo gratias" — " Thanks to God." Immedi- 
ately after each one rises and repairs to the chapter- 
house, where they wait till the great bell of the monas- 
tery announces the time for the morning office to begin. 
The prior now joins them, and a signal being given by 
a nod, all enter the chapel, walking two and two, each 
one making a genuflexion before the tabernacle, where 
the wafer is, but where God is not, and then proceeding 
to their respective choirs. 

At the close of this service, as prescribed by the 
Horn an Breviary, the first nocturne, or the first hour 
after midnight, follows, and is succeeded by the second, 
third, and fourth ; prime, the break of day, is next cele- 
brated ; to this follows a service for the third, sixth, and 
ninth hours. Vespers commence at four o'clock in the af- 
ternoon, and complin is the conclusion of the daily office. 
All these services, it may be remarked, are conducted 
regularly by some severity. Should any one enter the 
chapel after the commencement of the first psalm in the 
office, he knows the consequence. If a junior, he must 
fall on his knees at the bottom of the choirs ; if a 
senior, he must stand in a bent and humble position, 
till he has a signal from the prior to take his place. It 



PENALTIES. 



299 



is at the discretion of that officer to allow him to ad- 
vance to the choir, or to require him to remain as at 
first, until the service is concluded. 

Should a mistake be made by any one in reciting the 
office, so as to occasion a moment's interruption, he has 
to leave his place at the close of the part in which the 
error has been committed, and to kneel between the 
choirs, or in some other conspicuous place, as a penance 
for his fault, and in that posture he remains during the 
pleasure of the prior. It may also be stated, that 
scarcely any portion of an office is recited without the 
commission of some slight error, and the infliction of the 
corresponding penance. 

Other inflictions frequently occur. Should any one 
not enter the refectory till after the first grace is con- 
cluded, he must, if he be a junior, silently ask pardon 
on his knees, and remain in that posture till the prior 
allows him to rise ; or if he be a senior, he must make 
an acknowledgment of guilt, by standing in a bent 
posture, till the prior bids him take his place. The 
signal is given in these, as in other cases, by a nod. 
When dinner is finally ended, the prior leaves his 
place, and each of the brethren follow in the order 
of their profession. The same rule is observed on 
ordinary days at supper. On fast days, at evening 



300 



SELF -INFLICTION. 



collation, instead of saying grace, a chapter of the rule 
of the order is read, as is also a small portion of the 
works of Thomas a Kempis, or some other writer, 
after which each one eats his portion in silence, and 
then retires. 

An exemption from self-infliction must already have 
been observed. But it is still endured on the continent. 
Even now, the Trappists, during the season of Lent, and 
at other penitential times, frequently retire to the dormi- 
tory, strip off their clothes to the skin, take a scourge of 
cords filled with knots, and flog themselves, while they 
repeat, in slow recitation, the Miserere psalm, the fifty- 
first of the Protestant version. To such a course, the 
studies and active services of the Benedictines are 
decidedly inimical. The practice, moreover, is gener- 
ally discontinued in this country. Cases have been 
known in which it has been observed by some nuns, 
but in these it has been reprehended by the bishop ; 
and an abbess has been threatened with the withholding 
of absolution, if she allowed its continuance. In England 
the bondage of the mind, is the point aimed at by 
Popery in every process ; at present it cannot often 
venture further. 

Yet let it not be supposed, that the whole chapter of 
severity has been perused. For should one of the 



SEVERITY EXERCISED. 



301 



professed be charged with any dereliction of duty, such 
as neglecting the engagements of the choir, speaking 
disrespectfully of his superiors, going beyond bounds 
"without permission, eating or drinking in any person's 
house while thus without the line of demarcation, pro- 
tracting his absence after the time appointed for his 
return, keeping money in his possession, entering the 
cell of a brother, or taking anything to his own cell to 
eat, which he has no right to do — for these and similar 
errors, he is exposed to serious consequences. 

In all such cases, he may be summoned into the 
presence of his superiors ; in many of them a council 
of the house will be called, and, convicted of the offence, 
he will be subjected to penances, such as being con- 
fined to his own cell for a week, living on bread and 
water, being shut up in a dark room, and allowed to 
see only the brother who supplies him with a scanty 
portion of food, saying the whole of the office on his 
knees without once rising, or kneeling publicly in the 
refectory for three successive days without food. 

This part of the system may be further illustrated by 
a fact. A junior master, under a strong and un- 
warrantable feeling of hostility, treated one of the pro- 
fessed with marked disregard, and annoyed him by all 
possible means, until at length the injured party, mor- 



302 



PENALTY FOR DISOBEDIENCE. 



tified beyond endurance, declared that "he did not 
care " for his oppressor. For that act he was compelled 
to ask pardon on his knees from his offended superior, 
to live for three days in the week on bread and water, 
and during each day, for three weeks, to kneel during 
the hour of dinner. Yet this was not enough. Various 
and repeated statements of the master produced and 
kept up the impression that the young man was ex- 
ceedingly refractory, and further severe penances fol- 
lowed in rapid succession. Earnestly did he desire to 
leave the monastery, but his wish was not allowed to 
be realized. 

At length he was abruptly removed from the 
establishment. The president gave him a letter of re- 
commendation to a similar institution in France ; and 
thither he went, with the full expectation of sharing all 
the privileges of its inmates. But in less than three 
days after his arrival, a second letter was sent from the 
president in England to the prior of the college, direct- 
ing that he should be transferred to a monastery that 
was named, in one of the most remote and sequestered 
parts of France, and to this he was forthwith removed. 

Eighteen months afterwards a letter was received 
from him, addressed to the monastery in England, 
wherein, in the most pathetic and forcible language he 



THE IRON CHAIN 01 POPERY. 



303 



could command, he implored permission to return with- 
in its pale. To his entreaties, however, a deaf ear was 
turned, nor was he allowed to leave the foreign monas- 
tery, when the writer last heard of him, though he has 
as great a right to all the liberties of the establishment 
as any around him. All he had suffered here had been 
indescribably surpassed in the place of his exile. He 
stated, that for a year and a half he had neither tasted 
nor seen " flesh-meat, fish, eggs, cheese, or butter." 
"Why, then," it may be asked, " does he not contrive 
to escape ? " The answer is : He has been trained in 
the belief, that to do so would plunge him in eternal 
ruin ; and that idea rivets for life, unless indeed the light 
of Heaven should break on his mind, the iron chain of 
his soul's bondage. In many cases, however, the chain 
at last is broken, but it is by the party becoming an 
infidel ! From the individual referred to the glad and 
soothing tidings of the Gospel in its fulness and fine- 
ness have been studiously withheld, 

Nor is his, in this respect, a solitary case. Could 
multitudes reject the idea, that beyond the pale of the 
Romish church there is no salvation, they would pass 
over its boundary at once ; but fear forms the bond 
which holds them in the most awful captivity, 

Here, however, it should not be overlooked, that 



304 REQUIREMENT OF ABSOLUTE SUBMISSION. 



effort is invariably made to keep penance secret. An 
individual may be removed from England into France, 
and be absent from the monastery many months, and 
yet those who have been his most intimate companions 
may not be able to ascertain where he is. Direct com- 
munication between them is absolutely impossible, for 
the prior reads all letters that come to the monastery, 
or are sent from it. 

One great point to be observed in the discipline of 
monastic institutions, is the unqualified and slavish 
submission of the inmates to the will of superiors. A 
tendency to this is discoverable at the outset ; and it is 
perseveringly promoted in various ways, till the object 
is accomplished. Effort is in all cases indispensable ; as 
invariably it includes severity, and where an ordinary 
measure will not suffice, it is increased, as we have seen, 
to the pains and penalties of banishment. The will 
must be reduced to abject thraldom, whatever the sacri- 
fice to the individual, or the exertion to those under 
whose authority he is placed. 

Another object sought to be effected, is the prepara- 
tion of the individual for his future course. Should he 
discover any particular talent, special effort is made that 
it may operate for the extension of Popery. Hence men 
of ability are selected for the work of instruction and 



DUPLICITY OF POPERY. 



305 



discipline. Each professor has his own sphere of in- 
struction. In other branches of knowledge he may be 
comparatively little interested, but in that which is in- 
dicated by his station and name, he is to be perfectly at 
home. Here his opinion is regarded as decisive and 
oracular. Thus the professor of theology has made 
that science the study of his life ; and though he may 
be a tyro in natural philosophy, he is thoroughly ac- 
quainted with the delusive system of Popery. 

A third object constantly kept in view, is the incul- 
cation of artifice, whenever the interests of Popery are 
considered to render it desirable. The charge is fre- 
quently heard by the inmates of monasteries, " Never 
make known the whole of our system to externs;" 
meaning, by this phrase, Protestants as well as Papists. 
A regular will, in consequence, be reserved towards a 
secular priest, as one of a body with which his own is 
not always on the most friendly terms ; while the 
secular commonly looks on the regular with a jealous 
eye, because he is not so much under the control of a 
bishop. 

In other cases there is more secresy. Not long since 
a number of candidates for orders applied to a well- 
known Roman Catholic bishop. In the examination of 

x 



306 



DUPLICITY OF POPERY. 



one of them as to priestly absolution, the question was 
proposed, " Has a priest power fully to absolve all who 
truly confess their sins ? " The answer was in the affirm- 
ative. Another inquiry was, " Is this power in fact 
his own, individually ? " To which the candidate re- 
plied as follows : 6 ' It is ; it becomes his on the ground 
of free gift : every priest at his ordination receives that 
power when the bishop lays his hands on him, for he 
derives it by an unbroken succession from the apos- 
tles, to whom it was said, ' Whosesoever sins ye for- 
give, they are forgiven : and whosesoever sins ye retain, 
they are retained.'" " But," it was rejoined, " would 
you explain the matter in this way to externs ? " 
"No," said the candidate, "my answer to them would 
be, This power is not my own individually ; God alone 
can forgive sins ; but I am appointed on his part to 
pronounce the absolution or retention of sins." This 
statement was highly commended by the bishop ; he 
directed that such a course should commonly be pur- 
sued ; and thus the candidate, with those around him, 
were charged in words to deny what they actually held, 
and to give an explanation of a doctrine of their church 
diametrically opposed to what it is in point of fact. 
How does this remind us of Belial, in Milton's poem : 



SUBTLE DISTINCTIONS. 



307 



— He seemed 

For dignity compos'd and high exploit : 
But all was false and hollow : though his tongue 
Dropped manna, and could make the worse appear 
The better reason. 

Such a course needs no comment. It calls at once 
for the most unqualified condemnation. No possible 
circumstances can extenuate such duplicity. Were it 
admissible in one case, it would be in two ; and if in 
two, in ten, a hundred, a thousand, a million : nor 
could any barrier be placed to arrest a practice which 
would overwhelm in utter ruin the dearest interests of 
man. 

But to proceed to other facts. As soon as the pro- 
fessor has passed through a certain portion of theology, 
and the required permission has been given by the pre- 
sident, he is presented by the professor or the prior to 
the bishop for examination. Points of theology, which 
occupy him about a year in close study, and other to- 
pics on which his mind is engaged, next call for a most 
rigid examination. If his answers are approved, he 
receives, if at the age of twenty-one, the order of sub- 
deacon, which enables him to assist in the celebration 
of mass, to read in the church or chapel, and also to 
handle the sacred instruments and vessels. 

A curious distinction is here made. The sacristan 
x 2 



308 



THE DEACON.— THE PRIEST. 



has to attend to the cleansing of all the sacred vessels, 
which he can do while they are entire. His assistants 
cannot clean any one as a whole, except they are in 
holy orders. The doctrine of the Popish church on 
this point is, that churches, grounds, vessels, and in- 
deed every thing consecrated, is so as a whole, hut that 
the consecration does not extend to the parts. Thus 
a merely secular person may touch or clean a conse- 
crated vessel, such as a chalice, in its several pieces, 
but this person is not allowed to screw the pieces to- 
gether, because the chalice would then become a whole 
in his hands ! Such is one specimen of this system 
fraught with quibbling and evasion. 

Another year (sometimes a longer space) is employed 
in further study, when the sub-deacon appears before 
the bishop, and, if approved, he receives the order of 
deacon, and, in consequence, he is allowed to preach, 
and assist in the celebration of the sacraments. An- 
other term is then occupied in the study of theology, 
and, if approved, he obtains priest's orders, so that he can 
now celebrate the mass. He is then permitted to drink 
of the chalice, of which he was never before allowed to 
partake, and administer all the sacraments of the church, 
except those of holy orders and confirmation. Prior 
to his receiving those orders, he passes several days in 



INSTANCE OF AUTHORITY. 



309 



a retreat and fasting, and receives the sacrament. He 
may become a priest at the age of twenty-four ; but he 
cannot at an earlier time, without a special dispensation 
being granted by the pope. Every ordained person, it 
may here be remarked, has power to exercise all the 
functions of his office, but he has not permission until 
he receives certain documents, denominated his faculties, 
from the bishop of the diocese in which he is stationed. 
And as these must be granted in order to the actual 
ministration of the individual, so they may be sus- 
pended at the will of the prelate. It is held that a 
man once a priest, is so for time and in eternity, and 
yet his faculties may be withdrawn for any or the 
greater portion of his life ! 

No moment indeed occurs throughout the priest's 
future career in which he is free from the vow of obedi- 
ence to superiors, or able to assert not merely his own 
independence, but that he refers to the authority of 
God, rather than to the will of man. His bondage is 
that of the body and the soul for life. Accordingly, he 
proceeds with the work intrusted to him, until he is 
compelled to pause. Sometimes he is suddenly recalled 
to his monastery by the voice of authority. So it 
was, not long since, with a priest who had for some 
time been engaged in the service of his church in one 



310 



EXTREME UNCTION. 



of our eastern counties. On the arrival of the man- 
date, he was brewing, when he immediately told his ser- 
vant that she might do what she pleased with the con- 
tents of the vat, and taking a hurried leave of a very- 
few of those with whom he had been acquainted, to 
whom he stated that he should most probably never 
see them again, he proceeded with the utmost des- 
patch to his monastery in the west of England. 

In other instances, the priest continues his labours 
till unfitted for them by age, and then he retires to his 
former abode. When, at length, he is supposed to be 
in dying circumstances, the monks are summoned to 
his cell, and are employed in prayers for his peaceful 
departure. When death is thought to be near, the 
prior anoints him with oil on the eyes, ears, mouth, 
hands, and feet, which is styled the ' ' sacrament of 
extreme unction." It is assumed to be founded on 
the words in the epistle of St. James, ch. v. 14 ; but the 
anointing there spoken of was of those expected to 
recover, while this sacrament, as it is falsely styled, is 
never given but when the sick person is in his last 
agony. As soon as his death is announced, every 
brother has to say seven offices, and every priest to 
celebrate seven masses "for the repose of his soul." 
During the remainder of the day of his decease, and 



CELIBACY OF THE ROMISH CLERGY. 311 



the next night, two of the professed, in their turn, pray 
over his corpse. On the night before his interment, 
the coffin is covered with a black pall, placed in the 
middle of the chapel before the altar, surrounded by- 
wax tapers in large black stands, and the office for the 
dead is chaunted. On the day appointed for the inter- 
ment, high mass is celebrated, and a requiem is sung, 
after which the body is borne to the cemetery of the 
monastery, w T hile the brotherhood follow in procession, 
repeating prayers and psalms. At length, the plain 
wooden coffin, with a black cross on its lid, is lowered 
into the grave, the funeral service is read, and the pro- 
cession returns, that the same exercises may be con- 
tinued. A commemoration, lasting for seven successive 
days, now takes place; the name of the deceased is 
placed in the records of the dead ; the anniversary of 
his departure is regularly celebrated ; and a plain tablet, 
surmounted by a cross, is put at the head of the grave. 

Such a course of life cannot fail to strike us as very 
peculiar, inasmuch as, apart from other circumstances, 
a large number of persons continue unmarried, to en- 
gage in the service of the Romish church. The fact is, 
she imposes celibacy on all her clergy, from the pope 
to the humblest order of her ministers, on the plea, that 
a vow to remain unmarried was required in the ancient 



312 ORGANIZATION OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 

church, as a condition of ordination, even from the 
times of the apostles. But this is opposed to many 
unquestionable facts. The Scriptures declare that 
" marriage is honourable in all," Heb. xiii. 4 ; and 
Peter, whose successors the popes claim to be, stood 
in that relation. Paul even describes " forbidding to 
marry," as a characteristic of the apostasy of after times, 
1 Tim. iv. 3. Marriage was not forbidden to bishops 
in the Eastern church, till the close of the seventh cen- 
tury ; nor was it refused to the Western clergy in 
general, though attempts had been made long before, 
till the end of the eleventh century. Well had it been 
if the yoke had never been imposed : the order of God's 
providence can never be violated — and in this case it is 
most flagrantly — without great and enormous evils. 

As a matter of human policy, the celibacy of the 
clergy is calculated to promote the interests of the 
church of Rome. He who sustains the relations of a 
brother, a husband, a father, a master, a subject, and 
a member of society at large, has feelings peculiar to 
such circumstances, and objects in connexion with them 
which he will desire and labour to promote. In the 
bosom of the monk, an effort is made to extinguish all 
such emotions : he cannot marry ; and all the ties of 
family are to be considered as rent asunder for ever. 



THE PAGAN PRIESTHOOD. 



313 



His church is to be regarded not only as a matter dis- 
tinct from the state, but as one of infinitely greater 
moment. He is to prefer the will of his superiors, to 
that of the community at large, or to the law of the 
land. He is to live for the system which holds him 
as in iron bonds. All besides is to be held in contempt, 
or treated with abhorrence. 

Here, then, is power of no ordinary kind : the mem- 
bers of the church of Rome are required to submit 
themselves to the authority of their priests ; all orders 
of the clergy, from the sub-deacon to the cardinal, render 
homage to the pope ; he reigns over the whole hierarchy 
with resistless power ; and it is only for him to issue his 
mandate, to summon any or all of this gigantic con- 
federacy to vigorous and persevering exertion. In a 
word, the monks and nuns are avowedly soldiers of the 
pope, devoted to his commands, and bound, by stronger 
than human engagements, to promote his authority over 
the souls of men, as well as over their bodies. The 
thought is indeed alarming ; and especially when we 
consider, that the world is likely yet to feel the might 
of this anti-christian power, to an extent which hitherto 
has never been experienced. 

One other fact only remains at present to be observed. 
The priests who had the care of the pagan temples, 



314 



THE PAGAN PRIESTHOOD. 



and the superintendence of every thing relating to the 
worship of the gods, were not only a separate order of 
persons, but possessed important privileges. They 
were not arrayed in all the terrors of superstition, that 
are entertained by ignorant savages, but they generally 
acquired the reputation of great sanctity, and were con- 
sidered as having a peculiar influence with the powers 
to whose service they were presumed to be consecrated. 
Their proper office, which was to do honour to the gods, 
by presenting sacrifices and offerings, was therefore 
often associated with the functions of a prophet, and 
sometimes those of a magistrate. The responses they 
affected to obtain from oracles, and their pretensions 
to a knowledge of the future, are alike notorious. How 
completely these persons were the prototypes of the 
Roman Catholic priesthood, will be evident on recurring 
to various parts of this volume. It is manifest, how- 
ever, that the Romish priest assumes a greater autho- 
rity, and exercises it with more absolute sway, than the 
priests of Jupiter and Apollo. 



LETTER XV. 



DOCTRINE OF INTENTION IN CELEBRATING THE SACRAMENT- 
OPPOSITION OF POPERY TO LIBERTY OF JUDGMENT, SCIENCE, AND 
LITERATURE — PERSECUTING SPIRIT OF THE ROMISH CHURCH 
THE INQUISITION. 

Assuredly, the Romanist " labours in the fire, and 
wearies himself for very vanity." This will farther 
appear from a fact not yet stated. 

The church of Rome pronounces a curse on any man 
who shall say, that " there is not required in the minis- 
ters who celebrate the sacraments, an intention to do 
what the church does." Now, this church not only 
passes through the outward forms of its sacraments, 
but means that they should be true sacraments, and 
should communicate grace to the receivers. Accord- 
ingly, it is decreed by the council of Trent, u If any 
man shall say that the sacraments of the new law do 
not contain the grace which they signify, or do not confer 



316 



UOMISH SACRAMENTS. 



grace upon those who do not oppose an obstacle to it, as 
if they were only external signs of grace or righteous- 
ness received by faith, let him be accursed." It has 
been maintained, that the performance of the external 
work is enough, without any internal motion ; and sacra- 
ments are said by the church of Rome to confer grace, 
by the mere passing through them, because, except the 
exhibition and application of the sign, no good motion 
is necessary in the receiver. All that is required is, 
that no obstacle shall oppose the reception of grace, and 
the only one considered to be such is mortal sin. But 
as mortal sins are reduced to a very small number, 
and even these may be forgiven by the higher autho- 
rities, the sacraments are rarely wanting in efficacy, 
according to this doctrine. Thus, then, they are con- 
verted into a kind of magical charm, requiring no ex- 
ercise of the rational or moral faculties ; and, on the 
showing of the Romanist, would act with equal benefit 
when the receivers w T ere asleep as when they w r ere 
awake. 

Absurd as is such a notion, it becomes still more 
so ; for the Romanist holds, that while his church 
means that a sacrament should be true, and commu- 
nicate grace to the receiver, yet if a priest have not 
this intention, the form only of a sacrament exists : 



ROMISH SACRAMENTS. 



317 



the essence is wanting, and therefore it has no validity ; 
it is a mere sign without the substance. Thus he 
maintains that baptism is regeneration, but if the in- 
tention of the priest be wanting, the subject of the rite 
is unregenerate ; it is also contended, that in the eucha- 
rist the bread and wine are converted into the body and 
blood of Christ, but if the intention be wanting, the 
elements continue as they were ! 

It is not necessary to dwell on the impiety of a doc- 
trine, which subjects the ordinances of Christ to the ar- 
bitrary pleasure of even the most wicked men, so that 
they can render them efficacious, or annul them, as they 
please. The Scriptures plainly state, that it is the Di- 
vine blessing to which such institutions owe their effi- 
cacy. The intention of the administrator cannot sup- 
ply it against the will of God, or withhold it, if he 
pleases to bestow it. " My counsel shall stand, and I 
will do all my pleasure," is the clear and decisive lan- 
guage of Omnipotence. But what are the consequences 
of the opposite doctrine to the members of the church 
of Rome ? Assuredly most perplexing and alarming. 
None can know the intention of their priests ; and, 
therefore, none can know that they have received the 
sacraments : and yet a sacrament is said to be " a sa- 
cred ceremony, instituted by our Saviour, Jesus Christ, 



318 



DOCTRINE OF INTENTION. 



whereby the merits of his passion are applied to the 
soul of the worthy receiver." As it is possible, ac- 
cording to their own views, that they have not been 
baptized, such, in consequence, cannot be saved ! Still 
further, if an unbaptized person becomes a priest, all that 
he does is invalid — all the sacraments administered by 
him, even with a right intention, are empty ceremonies. 
Should he be a bishop, those he ordains are not priests ; 
and if he rises to the rank of a pope, the bishops he 
consecrates have no power. And therefore, by their own 
teaching, no Romanist, maintaining the doctrine of 
transubstantiation, can tell whether the elements of the 
eucharist have been changed or not ; and if they are 
simply bread and wine, then, in adoring them, he is 
guilty of idolatry. Thus, according to the doctrine of 
intention, the church of Rome may be no church, and 
the pope, with his whole train of subordinates, have no 
title to the offices they bear. And yet no better position 
than this is offered for all the services which Popery 
demands. This doctrine of the power of " intention," 
evidently is a device to support the authority of the 
priest, but it goes too far, it annuls that very power. 
How can any one depend upon the authority of a man, 
who, after all, may have none whatever, even on his 
own showing, because there very likely was a want of 



POPERY OPPOSED TO LITERATURE. 319 

44 intention" in some one through whom he claims his 
authority. 

The life of a Papist is one of constant sacrifice. The 
Bible secures to every man the inviolable right of private 
judgment, in all matters of faith and duty. Not more 
clearly does it reveal the obligations to obedience to 
the Divine will, than the right of individual opinion, 
founded on the principle of personal responsibility. 
But this the church of Rome denies to all her members. 
It is stated, that on the question being put to one of 
them, 44 What do you believe ?" He answered, 44 What 
the church believes :" and on being asked, 44 What does 
the church believe ?" The reply was, 44 The same as I." 
The only question that then remained was, 44 What do 
you both believe ?" when the answer was, 44 We both be- 
lieve alike." Submission to the ecclesiastical authority 
which the Romish church sets up, requires the sacrifice 
of one of the most precious rights of man. 

Its opposition to literature is beyond dispute. There 
is an Index Expurgatorius- — a catalogue of books pro- 
hibited by the church of Rome. The tenth rule of an 
Index confirmed by a bull of Clement viii., in 1595, 
ordains that no book shall be printed at Rome without 
the approbation of the pope's vicar, or some other person 
delegated by the pope ; nor in any other places, unless 



320 POPERY OPPOSED TO LITERATURE. 

allowed by the bishop of the diocese, or some other autho- 
rized person. Leo x., chiefly with a view to keep the 
Scriptures out of the hands of the great mass of the 
people, prohibited every work translated from the 
Greek and Hebrew ; and forbade the reading of any one 
book written by Luther or his brother reformers. It is 
stated in the " History of the Council of Trent," that the 
Roman inquisitors prohibited every book published by 
sixty-two different printers ; and all books published 
by any printer whatsoever, who had ever published any 
one heretical book. Nor let it be thought that such an 
Index is the work only of a barbarous age ; it is still 
in existence and operation. In the Yalais, a Popish 
canton of Switzerland, amongst a population of 100,000 
persons, not one bookseller, and only one printer — a 
mere creature of the Jesuits — was a few years since to 
be found. The demand would create a supply, but 
the Romish church forbids the demand. In other cir- 
cumstances, the influence of this prohibition appears : 
an English family, it is said, who inherited a large 
library, under circumstances which made it a kind of 
heir-loom, tore out every leaf of the Protestant works, 
leaving nothing but the covers on the shelves. 

When a priest told Inglis, the traveller, that he had 
thoughts of going to London or Paris, to print two 



POPERY OPPOSED TO SCIENCE. 



321 



grammars he had written, he asked him why he did not 
print them in Madrid, since they were intended for the 
use of his own countrymen, and could contain nothing 
political ? His answer was, that nothing was so difficult 
as to obtain a license to publish a book, even though 
it contained no allusion to politics ; and " the better the 
book," said he, " the more difficult it is to obtain a 
license, and the more dangerous to publish ; because 
government does not wish to encourage writing, or even 
thinking upon any subject ; and the publication of a 
good book sets men a thinking," The priest was right, 
and his testimony corroborates the remark, that Popery 
flourishes most among the ignorant. 

If, however, it can reject the books it disapproves 
with contumacy and scorn, it does not hesitate to ap- 
prove, in the name of the Most High and of the heavenly 
host, of what it considers calculated to promote its in- 
terests. Thus the " Life of Veronica of Burasco" was 
licensed by the " definidor " in Portugal, as inspected 
and re-inspected by angels, and approved by God ! One 
thing is clear ; the assertion of the Divine approval is 
just as true as that of the inspection of angels. 

Philosophy has not escaped the persecution of Popery. 
As the pope determined that the sun did, or ought to, 
move round the earth, Galileo was imprisoned for 

Y 



322 



POPERY THE SOURCE OF MISERY. 



maintaining the opposite system, which the examina- 
tion of ages has decided to be true. Still farther : the 
authors of the Jesuits' edition of Newton, having es- 
tablished the theory of Galileo, confirmed by our own 
illustrious countryman, proceed, in submission to their 
church, to usher their volumes into the world, by the 
declaration that the theory they have established is 
absolutely false ! 

Nor can it be doubted, that the sum of human misery 
accumulated by the Romish system is awfully great. 
What a conflict must there be in the mind of a young 
person, at once detesting the monastic life, and yet 
anxious to gratify the superstitious feelings of a parent ! 
In other cases we have seen that there must be a fear- 
ful amount of endurance. The council of Trent en- 
joins all bishops to guard against the possible escape of 
a nun — to employ the secular arm for security. It 
even calls on sovereigns to assist, and excommunicates 
all who refuse to obey. Should a monk in this country 
leave his monastery and marry, his conduct is considered 
in the highest degree infamous ; but if his wife will sepa- 
rate and become a nun, and he will penitently return, 
he may be again received. Numbers of monks and 
nuns in this land, at this hour, groan beneath their iron 
bondage, and are only held in durance by the fear of 



POPERY DEPENDS PERSECUTION. 



323 



perdition. Even suicide has been preferred to its con- 
tinuation ! 

Popery is essentially a persecuting system, as cer- 
tainly as was that of the false prophet of Mecca. The 
Rheimish translators of the New Testament, in their 
note on Revelation xvii. 6, " Drunken with the blood 
of the saints," say that " Protestants foolishly expound 
it of Rome, for that there they put heretics to death, and 
allow of their punishment in other countries : but their 
blood is not called the blood of saints, no more than 
the blood of thieves, man-killers, and other malefactors ; 
for the shedding of which, by order of justice, no com- 
monwealth shall answer." What, then, is the infer- 
ence of the annotators of this English version ? As 
Protestants and heretics, men may be put to death, like 
those whose conduct has forfeited their right to live. 

There is no difficulty, therefore, in convicting this 
church of a spirit of persecution even unto death. It 
plainly appears from many indisputable facts. A pope's 
bull, dated from the Vatican, or St. Peter's Palace at 
Rome, May 25th, 1643, contains the following passage : 
— " And having certain notice, that, in imitation of their 
godly and worthy ancestors, they" (the Irish) " endea- 
voured, by force of arms, to deliver their thralled nation 
from the oppression of the heretics, and to extirpate 

y 2 



324 REVOCATION 01 THE EDICT OF XAXTZ. 

those workers of iniquity, who had infected the mass 
of Catholic purity with the pestiferous leaven of their 
heretical contagion : by virtue of his power of binding 
and loosing, which God hath conferred upon him, to 
all and every the aforesaid Christians in the kingdom 
of Ireland, so long as they should militate against the 
said heretics and other enemies of the Catholic faith, 
he did grant a full and plenary indulgence, and abso- 
lute remission of all their sins, desiring all of them to 
be partakers of this precious treasure." Under this 
indulgence, the Papists of Ireland murdered many thou- 
sands of their Protestant neighbours. 

One of the sovereigns of France supposed that to 
persecute Protestantism was to attain the highest dis- 
tinction ; and after revoking the edict of Xantz, a.d. 
1689, he was laden with compliments by the Romish 
clergy, for having, as they said, without violent methods, 
made the whole kingdom of one opinion. And yet, at 
that time, five millions of his subjects were either 
groaning under torture, or flying into exile ; turning 
infidels, if they resolved to retain their property, or, if 
they sacrificed their fortunes to conscience, chained to 
the galleys. Their sufferings in thousands of cases 
being aggravated so as to cause death. 

Catherine de Medici invited many illustrious Protest- 



MASSACRE OF PROTESTANTS. 



325 



ants to Paris, a. d. 1572, to participate in a public fes- 
tivity, but, in fact, for the horrid slaughter of the Hugue- 
nots in France. At midnight, a signal was given to 
massacre not only all who were found in Paris, but orders 
were issued that the butchery should extend throughout 
the kingdom ; in consequence of which, 30,000 persons 
are calculated to have been slain in the space of thirty 
days. Xor was this all : crime, aggravated crime, was 
to be crowned by the hand of devotion ! The pope, 
attended by his cardinals, went in procession to St. 
Mark's church, to offer their tribute for " so great a 
blessing conferred on the see of Rome, and the Chris- 
tian world ;" thus impiously daring to make the God of 
righteousness, truth, and love, St party to their fiendish 
perfidy and cruelty. Medals commemorating " the 
slaughter of the Huguenots," were struck both at Rome 
and Paris, many of which are still in existence. 

But on persecution in its most appalling forms we 
cannot dwell. Xo computation can reach the numbers 
who, in different ways, have been put to death, for 
opposing the corruptions of the Romish church. A 
million of Albigenses, who derived their tenets from 
the primitive church, but resisted the progress, error, 
and superstition of the church of Rome, attracted 
notice in the south of France about the year 1160, 



326 



THE INQUISITION. 



and were massacred by armies sent forth by the decrees 
of the pope, who gave his blessing, and promised eternal 
salvation to all who engaged in this work of hell. 
Nearly a million of true Christians were slain in less 
than thirty years after the institution of the order of the 
Jesuits. The Duke of Alva boasted of having put to 
death in the Netherlands 36,000 Protestants by the 
hands of the common executioner, during the space of 
a few years ! According to Llorente, the historian of 
the Spanish Inquisition — a tribunal erected by the 
popes, for examining and punishing all who were 
suspected of differing from the church of Rome — the 
number of its victims, from 1481 to 1808, amounted to 
341,021. Of these, 31,912 were burnt ; 17,569 burnt 
in effigy, having died in prison, or not having been 
secured by the Inquisition ; and 291,456 were subjected 
to severe penances. But the total amount of the vic- 
tims of the church of Rome will never be known till 
the " earth shall disclose her blood, and shall no more 
cover her slain." 



LETTER XVI. 



SUPERSTITION ONE RESULT OF ROMANISM — BAPTISM OF BELLS — 
CEREMONIES OF AN ENGLISH MONASTERY PRETENDED MIRA- 
CLES — TENDENCY TO INFIDELITY. 

Superstition is constantly apparent in the church of 
Rome. In the making of proselytes, for example, 
its system is treated as a kind of science. One 
of the first things taught is to make the sign of the cross, 
by touching with the tip of the forefinger of the right 
hand, the forehead, the breast, and the shoulders ; but 
with so doing, there are said to be connected the doc- 
trines of the Trinity, of the advent, sufferings, and 
death of Christ, and also of human depravity. A 
variety of other circumstances, as the number of the 
sacraments, and the manner of attending the mass, are 
said to be associated with the same truths. The object 
is, therefore, to secure the making of the sign, because 
of the doctrines which are said to be figured by it, and 



328 



BLESSING OF BELLS. 



then an impression is left, that the observance of such 
ceremonies comprehends the whole system. A more 
ready way of promoting the merest formality, as a mat- 
ter of essential importance, is utterly inconceivable. 

In like manner, the Romanist holds, that the daily 
repetition of the Breviary is all that is required. A singu- 
lar illustration of the mere utterance of words is afforded 
in a bishop's mass. As he can repeat the words of the 
service more rapidly than they can be sung by the 
choirs, he may rest on his splendid seat for the season 
of repose he can thus secure, and this he may be fre- 
quently observed as doing. 

Another superstition of the Romanists is peculiarly 
apparent in the baptism of bells. The ceremony of 
thus blessing of them is supposed to consecrate them to 
the service of God, to the end that he may give them the 
power not merely of striking the ear, but of touching 
the heart ! When a bell is to be thus blessed, a pro- 
cession is made from the vestry, and the officiating 
priest, having seated himself near the bell, describes to 
the people the holiness of the act about to be per- 
formed, and then sings the Miserere. Next, he blesses 
some salt and water, and offers a prayer that the bell 
may acquire the virtue of guarding Christians from the 
stratagems of Satan, of driving away ghosts, of breaking 



330 



THE USE OF BELLS. 



that as the smoke of the perfume rises in the bell, and 
fills it, so a pastor, adorned with the fulness of God's 
Spirit, receives the perfume of the vows and prayers of 
the faithful. What an outrage on common sense is such 
a representation ! 

That mischief is done to the minds of many by the 
act of superstition just described, cannot be doubted. 
A traveller in Italy some years since, observed that it 
was usual to jingle the church bells whenever there 
was a thunder storm ; and on inquiring of a peasant 
the meaning of it, he replied, that it was done to drive 
away the devil. A bell was exhibited not many years 
ago, to the Society of Antiquaries, called " the bell of 
St. Kinnon," of whose sanctity the people of that part 
of Ireland whence it was brought, thought so highly? 
that they imagined if an oath taken upon it were broken, 
it would be followed by instant death. The like super- 
stition prevails also in other countries, and no doubt 
is a remnant of Popery. The practice, thus injurious, 
has obviously no authority in the revealed will of 
God. 

The use of bells was common in ancient times 
in the religious ceremonies of the heathen. The 
sounding brass was struck in the rites of the god- 



BLESSING OF OILS AND SALT. 



331 



dess Syria, and also in those of Hecate ; and was 
thought to be good for expiation and purification, as 
well as having some secret influence over the spirits of 
the departed. The priests of Proserpine at Athens 
rang a bell to call the people together for sacrifice : a 
brahmin rings a small one in the ceremonies of the 
Indian Pooja, and the dancing girls of the pagoda have 
little golden bells fastened to their feet. 

Articles, even inferior to bells, are also consecrated 
in the church of Rome. O'Croly, once a member of 
it, says : " Salt is blessed for a variety of purposes ; 
after being first of all duly exorcised itself," as if evil 
spirits could make it their abode ! ' i It is made use of 
in the administration of baptism, and in the manufac- 
ture of holy water. The ceremonial of blessing the 
oils, oleum infirmorum, (oil of the sick,) the oleum 
catechumenorum, (oil of catechumens,) and the chrisma, 
or chrism, (consecrated oil used on various occasions,) 
is complicated beyond measure, and magnificent withal. 
On Maundy Thursday, the oil is consecrated by the 
bishop, robed in his pontificals, in the presence of the 
diocesan clergy robed in their vestments ; who all, at 
the appointed times, while it is in progress of consecra- 
tion, worship it by triple genuflexion, salutation, and 
psalmody. The holy oil is adored on Maundy Thurs- 



332 



CEREMONIES IN A MONASTERY. 



day, just as the cross is on Good Friday ; on which 
latter occasion, also, a multiplicity of odd ceremonies 
takes place. — The efficacy of this benediction lasts but 
for one year ; at the expiration of which, it is under- 
stood that the holy oil becomes unfit to communicate 
grace, and should be committed for combustion to the 
devouring element of fire." 

The same spirit of superstition appears in the various 
services of an English Benedictine monastery. And I 
prefer to give you the details as practised here, both 
because I have received the information from a com- 
petent witness, and because if Popery is deserving of 
condemnation, when exhibited in its most disguised and 
plausible form, I need not say how much worse it must 
be when it is rampant, and rules over all, from the 
monarch to the peasant. 

On the day of the purification of the Virgin, (February 
2nd,) called also Candlemas day, the candles which are 
required during the whole year are blessed at the altar, 
lighted, and distributed to all present. At the close of 
the service, they are either purchased by externs, 
(persons without,) or are committed to the care of the 
sacristan. 

On Ash Wednesday, ashes prepared from " blessed 
palms," are put on the foreheads of all present as 



CEREMONIES IN A MONASTERY. 



333 



worshippers, in the form of a cross, when these words 
are pronounced in Latin, " Remember, O man, that 
thou art dust, and to dust thou shalt return." 

On Palm Sunday, palm branches, or sprigs of 
willows, are blessed and distributed to each of the wor- 
shippers, who, on their knees, receive them from the 
hand of the officiating priest, in commemoration of 
Christ's entering Jerusalem. 

The offices during three days in the " holy week" are 
generally chaunted, and are commonly called tenebrce, 
from the Latin word for darkness, when thirteen candles 
are burnt ; one of each is extinguished at a given 
portion of the office, till the whole are put out, and the 
chapel is left in comparative gloom. At the end of 
these offices, a signal is given by the prior, and imme- 
diately knocking with the hands and stamping with the 
feet are commenced, to imitate, it is said, the rending of 
the rocks and the throes of the earthquake, at the time 
of the crucifixion of Christ. 

On Holy Thursday, the morning salutation at the 
cell of each of the brethren is changed. It is then, 
" Christus f actus est pro nobis obediens — " Christ is 
made obedient for us :" the answer is, " Usque ad 
mortem" — " Even unto death." No private masses 
can be celebrated on this day ; but high mass is 



334 CEREMONIES IN A MONASTERY. 

performed, at which all the priests receive the eucharist 
merely as communicants, distinguished from the laity 
by wearing a stole. After high mass, the consecrated 
host is taken into the sepulchre. This is done in a 
procession, which includes all the brethren of the house, 
each one bearing a lighted torch, and singing a hymn 
in a deep and melancholy tone. They are preceded, as 
is the case in all processions of the monastery, by a 
person wearing the white dress, called an alb, having 
on it a black cross, to which a crucifix is attached. 

The sepulchre is a room darkened for the purpose, 
but, at the same time, highly ornamented with gold and 
silver vessels. A painting or figure of Christ, as taken 
from the cross, is seen from a distance lying there, 
surrounded with moss ; and on it the light of two candles 
is thrown, while they are completely hidden from view. 

On the return of the procession from the sepulchre, 
the priest, deacon, and sub- deacon strip the altar of all 
its ornaments, every light is extinguished, the doors of 
the tabernacle are thrown open, and the chapel rendered 
in appearance as desolate as possible. The remainder 
of the day, which is one of fasting and prayer, and the 
whole of the following night, are employed in watching 
the sepulchre. 

On Good Friday morning, the salutation is, " Usque 



ADORATION OF THE CROSS. 



335 



ad mortem" — " Even unto death;" and the response, 
" Mortem autem cruris" — " The death of the cross," 
Now the altar is clothed in black, and of the same hue 
are the vestments of the priest, deacon, and sub-deacon, 
prayers of an unusual length and number, far exceeding 
those of ordinary times, are said ; and the cross taken 
from the top of the tabernacle is laid on the ground for 
adoration. This act of worship is performed as follows : 
three cushions are placed at a considerable distance 
from each other ; the worshippers, approaching one by 
one, kneel on the first cushion, and make a profound 
obeisance, till the head nearly touches the ground ; the 
same act is repeated at the second cushion, and also at 
the third ; each one then approaches the cross, makes 
another profound obeisance, and kisses the feet and 
hands of the crucifix. Such are the practices even in 
England. 

In this act there is another case of gross idolatry, 
justified by the highest authorities of the Romish church. 
St. Thomas Aquinas has fully decided, that " the same 
reverence is to be given to the image of Christ, as to 
Christ himself ; and that since Christ ought to be wor- 
shipped with the worship of latria — that is, the highest 
or Divine degree of worship — his image should receive 
the same homage." There are other declarations to the 
same effect. 



336 



IDOLATRY OF POPERY. 



In the " Manual of Godly Prayers" is the petition, 
" God, which, under the admirable sacrament, hast left 
unto us the memory of thy passion, grant, we beseech 
thee, that we may so worship the sacred mysteries of 
thy body and blood, that continually we may feel in us 
the fruit of thy redemption." And in the " Office of the 
Venerable Sacrament," printed at Colen, 1591, are the 
following words : " O God, who wouldest have the glo- 
rious mystery of thy body and blood to remain with 
us ; grant, we pray thee, that we may so worship thy 
corporeal presence on earth, that we may be worthy to 
enjoy the vision of it in heaven." Here, again, is the 
doctrine of merit blending with gross idolatry. Mar- 
vellous is that forbearance which delays to take ven- 
geance ! 

To return to the monastery. In the course of Good 
Friday, a sermon generally is preached on the cruci- 
fixion of Christ : after which, torches are given, and all 
the brethren and collegians proceed, in silence and in 
regular order, to the sepulchre. The torches are lighted 
there, and they return in procession, bearing the host 
to the chapel, and singing in a tone less melancholy than 
before. The host is now eaten (it is said to be con- 
sumed) by the priest. On this day no mass is cele- 
brated, and the fast, as on Ash Wednesday, is the 



CEREMONIES IN A MONASTERY. 



337 



most rigid of the Romish church. On Good Friday, 
great numbers of the laity go to confession, as it is a 
law of the church, that every member of that body 
shall receive the sacrament of the eucharist at least 
once a year, that is, at Easter, or about the time that is 
in the Easter Indulgence, which begins on Palm Sun- 
day, and ends on Low Sunday, the one following that 
of Easter. 

On Holy Saturday, all the fires in the monastery are 
extinguished. In the morning, flint, steel, and tinder are 
placed on a table near the chapel door ; here a light is 
struck, a match is kindled, a candle is lighted by it, the 
light of the candle is blessed, and from that light all 
others are obtained : so that in all the various ways in 
which fire appears in the establishment throughout 
the year, it is considered as " blessed." 

Immediately after, those officiating at the altar, of 
various orders, enter the chapel, the first bearing a pole 
ornamented with ribbons, flowers, sprigs of laurel, box, 
or other evergreens, on which three lighted wax can- 
dles are placed in a triangular form, and after proceed- 
ing a short distance, he chaunts with a stentorian voice, 
" Lumen Christi,"—" The light of Christ." The whole 
procession then kneel down, responding, "Deo Gratias!" 
— " Thanks to God ! " This is repeated three times, at 

z 



338 



CEREMONIES IN A MONASTERY. 



each of which the procession kneels. The pole is after- 
wards placed on the right, or gospel side of the altar, 
where it continues during the whole of the morning ser- 
vice. The paschal candlestick is also brought in, and the 
candle lighted ; the professed object of it being to avow 
a belief in Christ's resurrection. The long litanies, or 
those of saints, are sung with their responses ; some 
prophecies which have a reference to the sufferings and 
triumphs of Christ are also chaunted ; various prayers 
for the church in all its branches, and for all ranks and 
degrees of men, are offered ; and, as an exception to 
every other day, petitions are presented to Heaven in 
behalf of heretics. Mass is afterwards celebrated, in 
the course of which the sound of a bell, which has been 
untouched since Holy Thursday, is again heard ; and at 
the conclusion of the morning service, which occupies 
many hours, the monastic inmates retire from the chapel 
in the same order in which they entered, and prepara- 
tions are immediately commenced for celebrating the 
feast of Easter. On the continent, the ceremonies on 
this occasion partake still more of the puppet show, 
the crucifixion and resurrection being often represented 
by groups of wooden or waxen dolls. 

Easter Sunday is considered by the Romish church 
the greatest festival of the year. In the morning, the 



CEREMONIES IX A MONASTERY. 



339 



salutation at each cell-door is, — " Surrexit Dominus vere, 
hallelujah /" " The Lord has risen indeed, hallelujah !' ! 
and the response, " Deo gratias ! hallelujah ! " — " Thanks 
to God ! hallelujah ! " Now the gloom of Lent is over, 
and a good breakfast is enjoyed, Again the crucifix 
is seen on the tabernacle, the veil which has previously 
hidden it being removed ; the altar has on its best co- 
vering ; the priest, with his assistants, are attired in 
their richest and most splendid robes. High mass is 
celebrated, the music of which is of a far more lively 
order than has. been heard for several weeks, and all the 
services of the day are characterized by joy and 
exultation. 

A great high mass is celebrated on Ascension day. to 
commemorate the entrance of Christ on his mediatorial 
glory. After the singing of the Gospel, the paschal 
candlestick, which, for the forty days after Easter, had 
stood on the Gospel side of the altar, representing, it 
is said, the risen Saviour, is removed to the sacristy. 

On Pentecost Sunday, there is a grand high mass, 
in commemoration of the outpouring of the Holy 
Spirit. 

On Corpus Chris ti, and for eight successive davs, 
there are processions in many places, in which the con- 
secrated host is carried round the premises. On the 

z 2 



340 



CEREMONIES 



IN A 



MONASTERY. 



continent, it is borne through the streets. While these 
days are elapsing, complin and the benediction are 
always chaunted. 

On the first of November, a great high mass is 
celebrated to thank God on behalf of all the saints in 
heaven. This is said to be " a feast of the universal 
church ;" and in the evening a high office is chaunted for 
" the repose of the souls of the faithful in purgatory." On 
the following day, another high mass is performed, when 
a requiem is sung for the same purpose, and a private 
mass is said by all the priests at a private altar. On the 
twenty-second day of the same month is the feast of St. 
Cecilia, " a virgin and a martyr," who is the patroness 
of all singers. All those engaged in the choirs indulge 
themselves freely. 

On Christmas day, there is high mass at midnight ; 
all the vestments worn are splendid, and the altars highly 
ornamented. On this day, which is an exception to 
any other in the year, each priest is required to cele- 
brate three masses. Another high mass is passed 
through in the forenoon. 

All that has been stated, so far as it regards the 
general circumstances of the monastery — its struc- 
ture, feasts, fasts, penances, and spirit, will also 
apply to the convents of England, the residence of 



THE MATADOR. 



341 



nuns, instead of monks, who, while the latter remain 
only until prepared for the service of the mission, con- 
tinue within the wails of their respective establishments 
for life. In every part of these services gross super- 
stition is apparent ; and to suppose that they can be 
acceptable to God, exhibits delusion almost incredible. 
Yet such is the awful infatuation of multitudes. 

Xo where can we look in popish lands without its being 
more openly apparent. The matadores, or bull-fighters 
of Spain, for instance, rise from the dregs of the people, 
and like most of their equals, they unite superstition and 
profligacy of character. None of them will venture on 
the arena without a scapulary, two small pieces of cloth, 
suspended by ribbons on the breast and back, between 
the shirt and waistcoat. In the front square there is a 
print on linen of the Virgin Mary, the representation 
generally called the Carmel Mary, who is the patron 
goddess of all the rogues and vagabonds in Spain. 
These scapularies are blessed and sold by the Carmelite 
friars. A celebrated matador, besides the usual amulet 
— the scapulary — trusted for safety to the patronage 
of St. Joseph, whose chapel adjoins the amphitheatre 
at Seville. During the life of this man, Pepe Illo, its 
doors were thrown open as long as the fight continued* 
the image of the saint being all the time encircled by a 



342 



THE BAMBINO. 



great number of lighted wax candles, which the gladiator 
provided at his own expense. The saint, however, 
allowed him often to be wounded, and finally left him 
to meet his death in a bull-fight at Madrid. 

At Rome, after Christmas, there is an exhibition, 
called the Prcesepio, to be seen in almost every church, 
and in most of the private houses of Rome ; but it is 
especially splendid in the church of Santa Maria in 
Ara Cceli, which crowns the loftiest summit of the 
Capitoline hill — sometimes crowded almost to suffoca- 
tion, by peasants from remote mountain villages, ar- 
rayed in grotesque and holiday costumes, to see the 
Virgin and the Bambino, the new-born Jesus. This, 
it is said, was originally brought down from heaven one 
night by an angel. The upper part of the church, 
around the great altar, is adorned with painted scenes ; 
and in the front of a stage, sits the figure of the Virgin, 
made of wood, attired in a blue satin gown, and a topaz 
necklace. Xear her lies the Bambino, wrapped in rich 
swaddling clothes, and decked with a gilt crown : be- 
side him stand Joseph and the two Marys ; and at a 
distance are two martial figures, made of pasteboard, 
and mounted on white horses, and called Roman cen- 
turions. Xear them projects the head of a cow. All 
these figures are as large as life. To the Bambino 



PRETENDED MIRACLES. 



343 



miraculous powers are attributed ; and when people 
are in the extremity of sickness, it is sent for, and visits 
them in a coach, attended by one of the friars. ' 4 1 
suppose," says a traveller, "no physician in Rome has 
such practice, or such fees. One of our Italian ser- 
vants assured me it had cured her of a fever, when all 
the doctors had given her up ; and I firmly believe it 
did, for upon inquiry I found, that the doctors resign- 
ing her to the care of the Bambino, discontinued their 
visits and their medicines. The six blisters they had 
put on were allowed to be taken off ; she got neither 
wine nor broth, and drank nothing but pure water to 
relieve her thirst. After hearing this account, I was 
no longer surprised at the Bambino's well-earned repu- 
tation for curing diseases." 

But, were the Romish church to be believed, mira- 
cles are still of frequent occurrence. The image of 
Loretto is declared to have been transported over 
immense tracts of land and vast oceans ; and another, 
with one of the child, placed in a church at Lucca, is 
said to be equally remarkable. The story is, that an 
infidel threw a stone at the infant, but the Virgin 
shifted him for defence from one arm to the other, and 
received the blow on her shoulder, whence the blood 
issued, which is preserved in a bottle, and shown with. 



344 



PRETENDED MIRACLES. 



the greatest ceremony by the priest in his vestments, with 
lighted tapers, while all embrace the relic on their 
knees. It is, of course, a very inconsiderable addition 
that the sceptic was swallowed up ; the hole, enclosed 
by a grate, is shown just before the altar of the image. 
Aringhus says, " The images of the blessed Virgin 
shine out continually by new and daily miracles, to the 
joy of their votaries, and the confusion of their op- 
ponents." When the French entered Rome, in 1796, 
more than twenty pictures of the Virgin Mary were 
said to have moved their eyes, and even to have shed 
tears. Affidavits by many persons who thought they 
saw these miracles, or at least, said that they did so, 
were published, with engravings of the pictures. A 
translation of this work into English was published 
under the authority of the Popish bishops, but the 
fiction was too gross to be believed then in England, 
and the work was rigorously suppressed. 

Allusion has already been made to the lives of two 
saints, very lately published. Of St. Alphonsus Liquori, 
born at Marian ell o, near Naples, in the year 1696, it 
is said : — 

" His loving patroness, our blessed Lady, rewarded 
his zeal in the cause of charity, by appearing to him in 
the sight of an immense crowd of people, collected in 



PRETENDED MIRACLES, 



345 



the church of Foggia, From her countenance a ray of 
light, like that of the sun, was reflected upon the face 
of her devout servant, which was seen by all the 
people, who cried out, i A miracle ! a miracle ! ' Al- 
phonsus, in his juridicial attestation, deposed, that he, 
together with the assembled audience, saw the counte- 
nance of the blessed Virgin, resembling that of a girl of 
fourteen or fifteen years of age, who turned from side 
to side, as was witnessed by every one present. 

" God rewarded his zeal by several prodigies ; for, 
one day, during a mission at Amalfi, a person going to 
confession at the house where Alphonsus lived, found 
him there at the very time for beginning the sermon in 
the church. After he had finished his confession, he 
went straight to the church, and to his surprise found 
Alphonsus some way advanced in his sermon. 

" Whilst he was preaching on the patronage of the 
blessed Virgin, he suddenly exclaimed, ' Oh, you are too 
cold in praying to our blessed Lady ! I will pray to her 
for you ! ' He knelt down in the attitude of prayer, with 
his eyes raised to heaven, and was seen by all present 
lifted more than a foot from the ground, and turned 
towards a statue of the blessed Virgin near the pulpit. 
The countenance of our Lady darted forth beams of 
light which shone upon the face of the extatic Alphon- 



346 



PRETENDED MIRACLES. 



sus. This spectacle lasted about five or six minutes, 
during which the people cried out, ' Mercy ! mercy ! 
a miracle ! ' " 

St. Francis De Girolamo, the second on the list, was 
born near Taranto, in the kingdom of Naples, Decem- 
ber 17, 1642. His early childhood is represented as 
adorned by a peculiar tenderness of heart, and to relieve 
distresses was to him the most surpassing delight. 
"How pleasing to God," says his biographer, " was his 
liberality, an extraordinary prodigy once manifested. 
One day his mother caught him, so to speak, in a 
pious theft, in the act of carrying away, to distribute 
among the poor, some bread belonging to the house- 
hold. The matron chid him for his indiscretion, as 
their circumstances could ill afford a charity so unre- 
strained, and forbade him to do so any more. The 
boy answered with a blushing cheek, but an air 
of superiority, * Look to the cupboard ! ' whereupon 
she looked as he desired, and lo, not a loaf w T as miss- 
ing ! — His frequent ravishment from the earth, and sus- 
pension in air, was a well known occurrence, visible to 
many who beheld him at mass, and, in a remarkable 
manner, happened during a procession. Nor was that 
singular prerogative denied him, which God's saints 
have sometimes possessed, of appearing in two places 



PRETENDED MIRACLES. 347 

at once, or of passing with the velocity of blessed spirits 
from one to another. 

" Neither were the secrets of hearts hidden from him. 
A very remarkable instance of his prophetic veracity 
occurred in the case of three young men, to whom, in 
his own house, he foretold their future destinies. 

"Even the elements obeyed him. Rain ceased at 
his command. All nature was obedient and subservient 
to him. The air bore to him on its wings his stick, 
which he had left behind him ; and the herbs grew super- 
naturally to minister to his charity." 

Such is the blasphemy of Popery as it is. The very 
attributes of Deity are ascribed to the men who have 
lately been canonized ! But on this gross impiety it is 
not necessary to enlarge. In reference to miracles 
generally, it should be remembered, that they were 
evidences of Divine revelation, and that they ceased 
when revelation was complete. Were there about to 
be some addition to the word of God, we might expect 
their return ; but as none will ever be made, assuredly 
no miracles will arise. As to the pretences of Popery, 
some are profane and impious in a shocking degree, but 
others are so absurd and ridiculous, as to carry their 
confutation in their face. Not a few of them have 
been clearly proved to be impositions, and even these 



348 



PRETENDED MIRACLES 



destroy all credit for trie rest : for he who has been 
repeatedly proved to be guilty of falsehood, can never 
be believed. 

It is not to be disputed, that there have been, and still 
are, persons of true piety in the Romish church. But 
if some are sincere, though their worship is in the 
highest degree superstitious, others are the mere slaves of 
erroneous opinions and unwarrantable practices. Take, 
in proof of this, the following quotation from Ranke's 
History of the Popes, in reference to the time of Leo x. : — 

" The schools of philosophy were divided as to whe- 
ther the soul was really immaterial and immortal, but 
one diffused through all mankind, or whether it was 
merely mortal. The most distinguished philosopher 
of that day, Pietro Pomponazzo, declared himself the 
champion of the latter opinion. He compared himself to 
Prometheus, whose vitals were preyed upon by a vul- 
ture for having stolen fire from heaven : but with all 
his painful toil, with all his acuteness, he arrived at no 
other result than this, — 1 That when the legislator 
decreed that the soul was immortal, he had done so 
without troubling himself about the truth.' It must 
not be supposed that these opinions were confined to a 
few or held in secret ; Erasmus expresses his astonish- 
ment at the blasphemies he heard. An attempt was made 



CONDITION OF ROMANISTS. 



349 



to prove to him, a foreigner, out of Pliny, that there was 
no difference between the souls of men and of beasts. 
— While the common people sank into an almost pagan 
superstition, and looked for salvation to mere ceremonial 
practices, the opinions of the upper classes were of an 
anti-religious tendency. 

" How astonished was the youthful Luther when he 
visited Italy. At the very moment that the offering of 
the mass was finished, the priests uttered words of blas- 
phemy which denied its efficacy. It was the tone of 
good society in Rome to question the evidences of 
Christianity. 1 Xo one passed,' says P. Ant. Bandino, 
' for an accomplished man who did not entertain heretical 
opinions about Christianity ; at the court the ordinances 
of the Catholic church and passages of holy writ were 
spoken of only in a jesting manner; the mysteries of 
the faith were despised.' " 

' 6 Among my numerous acquaintance in the Spanish 
clergy," says another modern writer, " I have never met 
with any one possessed of bold talents, who has not, 
sooner or later, changed from the most sincere piety to a 
state of unbelief." I should not use the phrase as he does 
about " the most sincere piety," for I should deny that 
it ever existed in such cases ; but I quote his words in 
proof of the tendency of the Romish system to abject in- 
fidelity. Other evidence of the same kind appears in a 



350 



POPERY TENDS TO INFIDELITY. 



letter written by Colonel Guiseppe Tordo to the Rev. 
Frate Lettore, Guiseppe de Catania, preacher of the 
order of St. Francis at Matta, to explain and justify his 
conversion to Protestantism, from which I take only a 
few extracts. " I saw — but to what purpose shall I 
enumerate the turpitude, the atrocities, the iniquity 
which I saw claiming affiance with sacrilegious Rome ? 
in one word, I saw enough to make me an atheist. 
Yes, sir, I became an atheist ; tremendous confession ! 
but I could wish it were heard by all the devotees of 
Rome. Yes, Sir, I say an atheist, the melancholy but 
natural consequence of the religion of Rome. 

" I became an atheist, because I could not imagine 
that there existed a God, whose religion was destined 
to be the scourge of the human race, the herald of 
tyranny, the advocate of ignorance, superstition, and 
error ; would prohibit the reading of the sacred oracles, 
as they emanated from the hands of their author : 
would canonize the regicide, trample upon the sacred- 
ness of an oath, burst the bands of civil society, plunge 
into misery the nations unhappy enough to adopt it, and 
render desolate the fairest of regions." 

Xeed I add a word, my children, to these melancholy 
statements ? Infidelity and Superstition are the twin 
children of the Church of Rome. What an argument is 
here for having a right understanding of the character and 



POPERY TENDS TO INFIDELITY. 



351 



tendency of its doctrines, as a security to yourselves, and 
as an inducement to compassion for others ! Receive, then, 
the truth in the love of it, and " contend earnestly for the 
faith once delivered to the saints. " In advances now 
making towards Popery, Romanists rejoice ; hut at all 
which tends to purify Protestantism, they tremble. They 
hate the declaration, " The Bible, and the Bible only, 
is our religion," and they dread the progress of such a 
principle. They are indisposed to collision, even with 
a man of humble powers, but sterling sense, whose 
simple and final appeal is to the word of God, while 
they delight to lead astray the ignorant and uniu- 
structed. On this ground they know he must tri- 
umph, and hence their common resort to any or every 
other. 

That Truth is great and all-prevailing, papists shall 
yet assuredly prove. The prophet Isaiah has clearly 
pointed out the instrumentality by which the reign of 
Christ shall be introduced and maintained. " He shall 
smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the 
breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked." " They 
shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain : for 
the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the 
Lord," Isa. xi. 4, 9. St. 'Paul, also, when foretell- 
ing the overthrow of the man of sin, expressly says, — 
" The Lord shall consume the wicked one with the 



352 FALL OF POPERY. 

spirit of his mofiib£ and shall destroy him with the 
brightness of his coming." 

Obstacles to the progress of truth still operate, and 
fearful collisions and convulsions may be expected yet 
to arise. Satan will task his utmost powers, as he 
knows his time is short, and Antichrist, combining all 
existing elements that are opposed to the will of God, 
will yet rage ; but its season of intolerance shall be 
short : though the heat may be scorching, it will re- 
semble the fitful brightening of the embers just before 
they expire. And glorious will be the day when the 
most consummate scheme that ever opposed the interests 
of man and the honour of God, shall meet the doom 
denounced by Him who cannot lie. "Rejoice over 
her," it will be said, " thou heaven, and ye holy apostles 
and prophets, for God hath avenged you on her;" 
while to this there will be the response, " Babylon the 
great is fallen— is fallen!" The stone cast by an 
angel's hand into the depths of the sea, is at once an 
emblem of its fall, and the pledge that its ruin is com- 
plete and eternal. I will close with the words of the 
apostle, " Therefore, my beloved, be ye stedfast, un- 
moveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord." 



THE END. 



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